Globalisation, Drugs and Criminalisation

Final Research Report on Brazil, China, India and Mexico http://www.unesco.org/most/globalisation/drugs_1.htm DRUGS AND CRIMINALISATION

Contents

Scientific co-ordination: Christian Geffray, Guilhem Fabre and Michel Schiray

Research Team: Roberto Araújo, Luis Astorga, Gabriel Britto, Molly Charles, A.A. Das, Guilhem Fabre, Christian Geffray, Sandra Goulart, Laurent Laniel, Lia Osorio Machado, Guaracy Mingardi, K. S. Naïr, Michel Schiray, Regine Schönenberg, Alba Zaluar, and Deng Zhenlai. GLOBALISATION, The UNESCO/MOST Secretariat Executive Secretary of the MOST Programme: Ali Kazancigil Project Coordinator: Carlos Milani Assistant Project Coordinator: Chloé Keraghel

Graphic design : Nicolas Bastien - Paul Gilonne/Sparrow //Marseille/France

CD-ROM EDITION General Index TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary Part 1: Drug Trafficking and the State Part 2: Drug Trafficking, Criminal Organisations and Money Laundering Part 3: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Drug Trafficking Part 4: Methodological, Institutional and Policy Dimensions of the Research on Drug Trafficking: Lessons and Contributions from France and the United States

1 General Index Executive summary TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary About the authors and the project team, 1. In memory of Christian Geffray, 3. Presentation of the Project, 4. by Ali Kazancigil and Carlos Milani Main Outcomes, 7. Publications, Conferences, Seminars and UNESCO Chairs Main findings, 11. Abstracts of the articles, 11. General Introduction, 19. Research on Drug Trafficking, Economic Crime and Their Economic and Social Consequences: preliminary contributions to formulate recommendations for national and international public control policies by Christian Geffray, Michel Schiray and Guilhem Fabre

2 executive Summary Part 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1: Drug Trafficking and the State Introduction: Drug Trafficking and the State, by Christian Geffray, 1. The Field of Drug Trafficking in Mexico, by Luis Astorga, 6. Decentralisation, Corruption and Criminalisation: China seen from a Comparative Perspective, by Guilhem Fabre, 23. Social, Economic and Political Impacts of Drug Trafficking in the State of Rondônia, in the Brazilian Amazon, by Christian Geffray, 33. History of Two Cities in-between Drug Trafficking: Guajara Mirim and Costa Marques by Christian Geffray, 48. The Drug Trade, the Black Economy and Society in Western Amazonia in Brazil, by Roberto Araújo, 65. Violence Related to Illegal Drugs, Easy Money and Justice in Brazil: 1980-1995, by Alba Zaluar, 70.

3 Part 1 Part 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 2: Drug Trafficking, Criminal Organisations and Money Laundering Introduction: Drug Trafficking in Southern Africa: Drug Trafficking, Criminal Organisations, the Legacy of War and Apartheid Money Laundering and Public Policy by Laurent Laniel, 110. on Drug Control by Michel Schiray, 1. Drug Trafficking in the Brazilian Amazon The Bombay Underworld: by Régine Shönenberg, 125. a Descriptive Account and Its Role in Drug Trade Drug Trafficking and Money by Molly Charles, K.S Nair, Laundering in the Amazon Region: Gabriel Britto and A.A.Das, 7. Geoeconomic and Geopolitical Effects by Lia Osorio Machado, 151. Drug Trafficking and the Informal Market in Rio de Janeiro Criminal Prosperities, Financial Crisis by Alba Zaluar, 51. and Money Laundering: the Case of Mexico Drug Trafficking in an Urban Area: in a Comparative Perspective the Case of São Paulo by Guilhem Fabre, 172. by Guaracy Mingardi and Sandra Goulart, 65. Drug Trafficking and Consumption in China: Case Studies from Two Cities in Guangdong Province by Deng Zhenglaï, 85.

4 Part 2 Part 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 3: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Drug Trafficking Introduction: Culture and Drugs by Gabriel Britto and K. S. Naïr, 1. Culture and the Drug Scene in India by Molly Charles and Gabriel Britto, 4. Violence in Rio de Janeiro: Styles of Leisure, Drug Use and Trafficking by Alba Zaluar, 31. The Social Construction of the Identity of the Trafficker by Luis Astorga, 39.

5 Part 3 Part 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 4: Methodological, Institutional and Policy Dimensions of the Research on Drug Trafficking: Lessons and Contributions from France and the United States Certainties and Uncertainties as Regards Illicit Drug Trafficking: Research Lessons in the Case of France by Michel Schiray, 1. From the Discovery of Drug Trafficking to the Recognition of Economic and Financial Crime: the Various Stages of a Decade of Francophone Studies on the Subject by Michel Schiray, 8. The Relationship between Social Science Research and Drug Control Policy in the United States, with a Focus on the Drugs-Crime Nexus by Laurent Laniel, 20.

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7 Help ABOUT THE AUTHORS Molly Charles,sociologist,has worked as Deputy Director at the National Addiction Research Centre (NARC),Mumbai (India). Her major areas of interest are organised crime, socio-economic costs of drug cultivation and trade,and policy research.She is the principal author of the book, Drug Culture in India — A Street Ethnographic Study of Heroin Addiction in Bombay (1999). E-mail address: [email protected]

A.A. Das is a research fellow at the National Addiction Research Centre (NARC) in Bombay. E-mail address: [email protected]

Guilhem Fabre,Sinologist and socio-economist,Professor at the Faculty of International Affairs,University of Le Havre and researcher at the Centre d'Etude sur la Chine Moderne et Contemporaine (Research Center for China)at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) (School of Advanced Studies on Social Science) in Luis Astorga is a sociologist. He is a Professor and a re- Paris. He is one of the scientific coordinators of the MOST-UN- searcher at the Institute of Social Research of the National ESCO/UNODCCP Project and author of Criminal Prosperities: Drug Autonomous University of Mexico (IIS-UNAM).Since 1989 he has Trafficking,money laundering and financial crisis after the Cold War been doing research on historical sociology and sociology of cul- published in French (UNESCO/Ed.de l'Aube,1999),Chinese (Shekui ture in the field of drug trafficking in Mexico. Forthcoming: kexue wenxian chuban she 2001) and forthcoming in English Organised Crime and the Organisation of Crime, in John Baily and (Routledge,2002). Roy Godson (coordinators), Organised Crime and Democratic E-mail address: [email protected] Governability: Mexico and the US-Mexican borderlands, University of Pittsburgh Press; and Editorial Grijalbo in Spanish. Christian Geffray, anthropologist, worked as a research di- E-mail address: [email protected] rector at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (Institute for Research on Development, IRD) and as a member of the Roberto Araújo, ethnologist, is a researcher at the Goeldi Centre d’Etudes Africaines at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Museum in Brazil, where he coordinates the Department of Sociales in Paris.Since 1995,he had been studying the social,eco- Human Sciences.His main interest is the sociology of the pioneer nomic and political effects of cocaine trafficking in the Brazilian fronts of Brazilian Amazonia. One of his main publications is Amazon.He was one of the scientific coordinators for the MOST- Fondation d’un lieu et formes de domination sur un front pionnier in UNESCO/ UNODCCP project. L’oppression paternaliste au Brésil (1996). Since 1998, he has been He passed away on 9 March 2001. working on the cocaine trade in Western Amazonia as part of the UNESCO/MOST project on drugs. Sandra Goulart,anthropologist,is a researcher at the United Email address: [email protected] Nations Latin American Institute for Crime and Delinquency Prevention (ILANUD), in São Paulo. Gabriel Britto is the Director of the National Addiction E-mail address: [email protected] Research Centre (NARC) in Mumbai (India). He has published on social action,political mobilisation,health policy and drug abuse Laurent Laniel, PhD candidate in sociology at the management. EHESS/Paris, worked as a researcher at the Geopolitical Drug E-mail address: [email protected] Watch (OGD). His fields of interest are the socio-economic and

NEXT 1 About the authors strategic implications of drug production, traffic and consump- UNESCO’s MOST project on drugs. He recently organised an is- tion, money laundering and their control.His most recent publi- sue on Drug trafficking and forms of economic crime of the jour- cation is The Relationship between Research and Drug Policy in the nal Mondes en développement. United States, MOST Discussion Paper N° 44, Paris, September E-mail address: [email protected] 1999. E-mail address: [email protected] Regine Schönenberg studied in Bonn, London and Berlin. She has been researching and working within various projects in Guaracy Mingardi, PhD in Political Science from the the Brazilian Amazon for 12 years;she is currently doing her post- University of São Paulo (USP), is a researcher at ILANUD. At pre- doctorate project on International Drug Trafficking and Social sent he coordinates the research on the analysis of criminal in- Transformations. She is working at Frankfurt University and formation (SAIC) in the Public Prosecutor’s Office in São Paulo.His teaching at the Free University in Berlin.She recently edited a vol- research interest if focused on the police relationship with crime ume on International Drug Trafficking and Social Transformation and drug trafficking. His publications include Tiras, gansos e tru- (2000). tas (1992, reissued in 2000) and O Estado e o Crime Organizado Email address: [email protected] (1999).He is presently the head of the municipal police of the city of Guarulhos (São Paulo). Alba Zaluar is Full Professor of Anthropology at the Institute E-mail address: [email protected] of Universidad do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) Social Medicine in the State University of Rio de Janeiro where she co- Lia Osorio Machado is Professor of Geography at the ordinates NUPEVI (Núcleo de pesquisas sobre violência). She is Geosciences Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro presently Special Adviser on local security policy for the Mayor of and Senior Researcher at the Conselho Nacional de Rio de Janeiro. Desenvolvimento Científico o Tecnológico (CNPq) (National Council E-mail address: [email protected] for Scientific and Technological Research). Her main research interests include the political and economic geography of the Deng Zhenglaï, sociologist, is the founder of the journal Amazon region, international boundary issues, and the banking Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly and former Director of the system. Her most recent article is Boundaries and frontiers. From Institute of Chinese Social Sciences. He translated the works of high diplomacy to illegal circuits (2000). von Hayek into Chinese. Email address: [email protected] Email address: [email protected]

K.S Nair is a research fellow at the National Addiction Research Center (NARC) in Mumbai, India. E-mail address: [email protected]

Michel Schiray, economist, is a researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (French National Research Centre).He is a member of the Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et Développement (CIRED) (International Research Centre on Environment and Development) and of the Research Centre on Contemporary Brazil (CRBC) of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) (School of advanced Studies on Social Sciences),at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris. He is working also in Rio de Janeiro and he is one of the scientific coordinators for

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2 About the authors DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF theory around the central question of values in his masterful work CHRISTIAN GEFFRAY Trésors: Anthropologie analytique de la valeur (Treasures: (1954 – 2001) Anthropological analysis of value,Paris,Arcanes,2001). It was also in the Amazonian region of Brazil that he came to Philosopher study the world of traffickers and criminals, which he described as well as Anthropologist, in two original and exemplary reports,which also served as a ba- and scientific coordinator sis which allowed him to develop new theories about the rela- of this report tionship between the State and criminality and which suggested new questions about the nature of the State (Mondes en développement,160,2000;International Journal of Social Sciences, 169,2001).Christian Geffray had also started to carry out research in Rwanda to try to have an understanding of what led up to the genocide in that country.

He died suddenly on 9 March 2001 at his home near Paris. After his training in philosophy, Christian Geffray became a professional anthropologist. As he was first of all a theoretician Christian Geffray was Director of Research at the Institut de and a thinker, his intellectual discipline as regards reality led him Recherche pour le Développement (Institute for Research on to a deep commitment to work in the most difficult fields. In Development, IRD, France) and also held a research position at Mozambique,he started by submitting a unique contribution,on the Centre d'Etudes Africaines,Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences a classic theme in anthropology, that of kinship ("Neither father Sociales (Centre of African Studies at the School of Advanced nor mother — overview of kinship among the Makhuwa"; Paris, Studies on Social Sciences, EHESS). He was also a director of the Le Seuil, 1991). Later he undertook research on the causes of the Scientific Council of the publication Lusotopie and directed a "insane" war that was devastating the country. His contribution seminar at the International College of Philosophy. He was was important in the international debate on the causes leading Scientific Co-ordinator for the MOST/UNESCO Project "The up to the war (La cause des armes au Mozambique: Anthropologie Economic and Social Transformations Connected with the d'une guerre civile / Why They Took up Arms in Mozambique: International Drug Problem ". He is also the co-editor of this re- Anthropology of a Civil War,Paris,Karthala,1990). port.

Afterwards he continued his research and his reflections in the In addition to being unusually creative on the intellectual Amazon region of Brazil.In the beginning he accompanied the lo- level, Christian Geffray took risks that were on the same level as cal Indians, the "gold seekers" ("garimpeiros") and the other pop- his discoveries. Even more, he was also a friend who listened to ulations who lived in this region,in order to analyse the pattern of everybody who was associated with this project.Thus, it is with paternalistic domination which was typical of these societies.His emotion that his colleagues dedicate the results of this project publication of Chroniques de la servitude en Amazonie brésilienne that we collaborated on for four years and which owes him so (Chronicles of Servitude in the Brazilian Amazon Basin, Paris, much. Karthala, 1995) is a model of scholarship, and opened new hori- zons on the subject of political science.His next project was to use the theories of Freud and Lacan as a conceptual base for a new analytical anthropology (Le nom du maître : Contribution à l'anthropologie analytique / In the Name of the Master: Contribution to analytical Anthropology, Paris, Arcanes, 1997). He developed his

3 Christian Geffray The MOST Project: The 1980s and 1990s were strongly marked by the surge of ECONOMIC activities related to the trafficking of illicit drugs. During this pe- AND SOCIAL riod, the processing, export and – to a lesser extent — produc- TRANSFORMATIONS tion and distribution of illicit drugs were largely taken over by major criminal organisations, some of which managed to play a CONNECTED WITH key role in the development of markets and to control large sec- THE INTERNATIONAL tors of the drug trade.These organisations are now present in all DRUG PROBLEM the major regions of the world, both North and South. For the Ali Kazancigil drug trade today nationalities and borders do not exist. More and Carlos Milani than ever, this trade epitomises the new world disorders of the post-Cold War era.

The drugs issue is one of the factors in the process of realignment of international relations — together with identity crises and demographic, cultural and economic transnational flows. Alongside environmental and human rights issues,it has become a new area of conflict and negotiation in the international arena — and hence in the globalisation process.

To analyse the drugs question, the MOST programme has started a research project, with the support of UNODCCP,on 1. Introduction "Economic and Social Transformations connected with the International Drug Problem", covering Latin America and Asia. Since the end of the bipolar system characteristic of the Cold In the drugs market, official intervention has a key role to play War, the world order has been undergoing a series of structural in regulating the relationship between supply and demand. It changes defined in terms of "crisis", "transition" or "turbulence". is especially important to gain a better understanding of these The disorder prevailing in the relations between the different ac- mechanisms and their economic and social consequences in tors on the world scene could be regarded as the result of the that this area is mainly clandestine and not sufficiently re- confrontation between the forces of centralisation and decen- searched.The MOST Scientific Steering Committee approved tralisation in the international system.This confrontation is char- this project in 1996.The MOST programme thanks the UNOD- acterised by the multiple reactions of state actors in response to CCP Research Section for its financial support, particularly growing economic and social interests. Sandeep Chawla and Melissa Tullis.

The world system appears to be affected by some highly One of the driving factors behind these transformations,ac- complex trends in which very different processes and levels of cording to the members of the MOST network,is the explosion regulation are combined and confronted. In the transforma- in the production of drugs of all kinds in every region of the tions taking place today, regulatory and mediator bodies are world. Let us take the example of coca and poppy growing. not necessarily adapted to each level of action.One of the prob- Coca is grown mainly in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, but can lems raised by the geoeconomics and geopolitics of drugs on now also be found in Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama and a global scale is closely bound up with the lack of conformity Guyana.It has also been reported in other major world regions. between local,national and international regulatory bodies and Laboratories for the processing of hydrochloride (the finished the levels — both spatial and temporal — of economic, social product, made from cocaine base paste) are beginning to pro- and political activities. liferate in other countries, such as Argentina and Chile. The

NEXT 4 The MOST Project opium poppy is grown on all continents, particularly in South- 2. The objectives of the project East Asia,Central Asia,Turkey,Egypt,Eastern Europe,Mexico and other countries of Central America.The most lucrative markets, The purpose of the project was to: both for coca and opiates, are still the United States and 1. Produce new knowledge by compiling and processing in- Western Europe,but consumption is spreading much faster to- formation — most of it previously unpublished — on the situa- day,particularly in the new business markets of Eastern Europe tion in different countries.The specific nature of the theme and and South-East Asia, and more generally in a large number of its novelty in many regions have resulted in a scarcity of basic developing countries. Cannabis and its derivatives are now knowledge on the subject,with the exception of a few countries found all over the world. (in particular, the United States and the Andean countries).

The production and distribution of drugs today constitute a 2. Undertake a comparative analysis between the countries considerable source of revenue.Revenue from drugs can help to and regions under study,with a view to identifying more closely offset budget deficits or enrich individual members of popula- the various historical, cultural, social, economic, legal and politi- tion groups, companies and even countries; it has had major cal dimensions of the spread of drug trafficking and the related repercussions on recent financial crises. Drugs also involve eco- social transformations. nomically marginalised groups, such as peasant-producers or small-time dealers, as well as criminal organisations and certain 3.Establish a network of research institutions and researchers integrated sectors of society,in the world of business or state in- in the various regions of the world: Asia, North and South stitutions.The recycling of profits has a direct effect on the heart America, Africa, Central Asia, and Western and Eastern Europe. of the economy and society (on land, property and financial assets),at the same time directly involving business enterprises and financial institutions. 3. Design and methodology The social transformations which stem from the development The project was based on networking among social science of the drugs economy attest to the expansion of illegal sectors of research institutions chosen for their scientific quality and inter- activity and their interpenetration with the formal sectors of so- disciplinary approach. ciety. They call in question the law, standards and elementary The focus was on research in four geographical areas: Brazil, rules of economic and social organisation and appear to be rad- China,India and Mexico.All these regions are economically com- ically influencing the development of our societies. A detailed plex and diversified, and are all becoming increasingly involved study of these transformations is therefore of crucial forward- in the drug trade. looking importance for decision-makers and for the definition of appropriate short,medium and long-term tools for the management of public affairs.There are wide variations in consumption, 4. Scientific results production and distribution,necessitating a large number of case studies focusing on national and local specificities in order to . The production of new items of knowledge in these compare the most deeply affected sectors and groups in differ- four selected major regions and their comparison with data avail- ent societies and to discuss new hypotheses, such as those put able in the traditionally specialised countries surrounding them. forward by members of the MOST network in this report. . A better theoretical understanding of the conditions governing the development of drug trafficking and the related economic and social transformations. . The regular production of analyses of the status quo at global, regional and sub-regional level (through the establishment of two UNESCO Chairs).

FORMER NEXT 5 The MOST Project 5. The expected institutional results (evaluation of existing policies and relevance of research for policy formulation)

The international system for the prohibition of drugs,however valid it may be for containing the risk of an uncontrolled outbreak of drug addiction,underestimates the social,economic and political repercussions of the creation of a highly globalised and readily accessible illegal market, despite the resources devoted to repression.The project was therefore intended to contribute to a better understanding and assessment of the social transformations at the various international, national and local levels, especially in the major urban centres of population.

These results make it possible to construct a new line of argument regarding the economic, social and political consequences of national and international drug control measures. This argument may help to restore the balance to a policy approach which is,in our view,too exclusively based on considerations of public health and law enforcement, to the detriment of a preventive approach.

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6 The MOST Project MAIN OUTCOMES: In addition,several preliminary versions of extracts of the con- PUBLICATIONS, tributions presented in the present report and some comple- CONFERENCES, mentary pieces of works were published in the MOST Discussion SEMINARS paper series,which is available on the web site of the MOST/UN- AND UNESCO CHAIRS ESCO programme (www.unesco.org/most).

A book was also published in German, based on research results of this project: Regine Schoenenberg (editor) 2000: Internationaler Drogenhandel und gesellschaftliche Transformation (International Drug Trafficking and social transformations), Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitaets-Verlag (DUV), 171 p.

Two papers on the subject of the project were presented in UNESCO magazines, which have a large circulation.

Two pieces were published at the end of related international 1. Publications conferences in the framework of this project, and three reports of the Research Project from annual seminars of the system were distributed, as noted below. Three major publications in special editions of magazines and books were made on the basis of the research of the project.They Numerous articles, several special editions of magazines complement, in large part, certain contributions that are pre- and even special documents were published based on the work sented in this final report. of the project in different countries,notably in France,Germany, Portugal, Belgium, the United States, India, Brazil, Mexico and Drug trafficking: Economic and Social Dimensions, China. International Social Science Journal,169,September 2001 (co-ordinated by Michel Schiray,Christian Geffray and Guilhem Fabre), pp. 339-474. Publications List: This issue is published in French,Arabic,Russian and Chinese and will be available in Spanish on the web site of UNESCO. ASTORGA (Luis), 1999, Drug Trafficking in Mexico: a first general assessment, MOST Discussion Paper. Trafic de drogues et criminalités économiques (Drug trafficking CD-Rom, Lia Osorio Machado and Murilo Cardoso de and economic crime),Mondes en développement ,N° 160;2000 (co- Castro,"A Multi-layered Enquiry into Drug Trafficking and Money ordinated by Michel Schiray, in collaboration with Christian Laundering Networks in the Amazon Basin and other Regions". Geffray and Guilhem Fabre), 106 p. COLOMBIE (Thierry), Impact Economique et Social de la Culture du Pavot sur la Communauté des Yanaconas au sein Guilhem Fabre, Les prospérités du crime:Trafic de stupéfiants, du Massif Colombien, MOST Discussion Paper. Blanchiment et Crises financières dans l’après Guerre froide LANIEL (Laurent), 1999, Cannabis in Lesotho: a prelimi- (Criminal prosperity: drug trafficking, money laundering and fi- nary survey, MOST Discussion Paper. nancial crisis after the cold war), La Tour d’Aigues: Editions de LANIEL (Laurent), 1999, The Relationship between l’Aube/UNESCO,1999,215 p.(forthcoming in English,Routledge, Research and Drug Policy in the U S, MOST Discussion Paper. 2002).

NEXT 7 Main Outcomes MILANI (Carlos) and KERAGHEL (Chloé), mars 2002,Les (UERJ),with the support of the university’s three research centres transformations économiques et sociales liées aux problèmes (NUSEG,IMS and NUPEVI) and by the Foundation for the support internationaux de drogues :le Programme MOST de l'UNESCO, of Research of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ).In addition to Revue Toxibase N° 5. the members of the network, the conference organisers invited MINGARDI (Guaracy),1999, Geography of illicit drugs in several specialists from several countries, including Rodrigo the city of São Paolo,MOST Doscussion Paper. Uprimmy (Colombia),Iban de Rementeria (Chile),to compare ex- MOST, 1998, Globalisation and the International Drug periences from different contexts in Latin America.A day open to Problem in Central Asia and Pakistan, UNESCO,Tashkent. the public was dedicated to the presentation and the discussion MOST Newsletter 9, 1998, Drugs, globalisation and of the results of work with national and local officials who were transformation. responsible for drug use prevention and the repression of drug MACHADO (Lia Osorio), 1998, Financial Flows and Drug trafficking. Trafficking in the Amazon Basin, MOST Discussion Paper. OBSERVATOIRE GEOPOLITIQUE DES DROGUES,1998, A presentation and summary document entitled "Report of Les drogues en Afrique subsaharienne, Khartala, Paris. the 2nd Conference on Economic and Social Transformations Linked Revue TIERS MONDE, 1999, Drogues : un nouvel avan- to the International Drug Problem at Rio de Janeiro" was prepared tage comparatif ?,Vol.XL,N°158,April-June 1999,P.U.F.,Paris. by Carlos Milani, MOST/UNESCO, 1998 (available on www.un- UNESCO Sources,April 1999,The globalization of the Drug esco.org/most). Trade,N° 111. ZALUAR (Alba), 1999, Violence Related to Illegal Drugs, 1999:The third annual conference of the network was held Easy Money and Justice in Brazil:1980-1995,MOST Discussion in New Delhi from 1 to 5 November 1999.It was organised at the Paper. Jawaharlal Nehru University, with the support of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR),the Indian Council for 2. Annual Conferences of the Medical Research (ICMR) and by NARC. The conference bene- Research Network fited from the presence of outstanding researchers from fourteen different countries, especially Mr Abul Faizi and Mr Three conferences were organised to bring together all the Mohammad Fateh, and Mrs Nualnoi Treerat, as well as the pres- members of the international research network to discuss goals ence of numerous outstanding experts from the Jawaharlal and the progress of the work. Nehru University and from the presence of officials from 14 different public services concerned with the problem of drug traf- 1997: The first seminar to launch the project Social and eco- ficking. nomic transformations connected with the International Drug Problem was held at UNESCO in Paris from 4 to 5 April 1997. It A presentation and summary document entitled "Conference brought together,for the first time,all the members of the network. report — Third international conference of UNESCO-MOST project on Economic and social transformations connected with inter- A presentation document entitled "Report on the Seminar to national drug problem" held in Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Launch the Project of Social and Economic Transformations Delhi was prepared and published by Madan C. Paul (MOST/UN- Linked to Drug Trafficking — UNESCO — Paris" summing up the ESCO-JNU,December 1999). seminar was prepared by Carlos Milani, MOST/UNESCO, 1997 (available on www.unesco.org/most).

1998:The second annual conference of the international network was held in Rio de Janeiro from 19 to 22 October 1998. It was organised by the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro

FORMER NEXT 8 Main Outcomes 3. International Follow-up 4. Creation of UNESCO Chairs Conferences in connection with the Project in Other Regions In order to assure the continuity of the Project and the inter- Two other conferences were organised by the MOST national network that was built up between 1996 and 2001,UN- Programme in the framework of the project in order to widen ESCO decided to support the establishment of Teaching and the collaboration with other regions — Sub-Saharan Africa,and Research Chairs and a network between universities on the sub- Central Asia/Pakistan. ject of drug trafficking in the associated countries.

The first international conference entitled "Drug trafficking in A UNESCO Chair was established in Mexico at the Universidad Sub-Saharan Africa" was organised at UNESCO, in Paris, by the Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) for the years 2002-2003- MOST programme and the Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues 2004.This Chair is co-ordinated by Luis Astorga,in liaison with the (OGD) in 1997.This conference was attended by many specialists, teachers and researchers from several other Mexican universities. officials and researchers from a wide spectrum of countries and world regions, and especially from Africa. Representatives from A second UNESCO Chair and a national network on the theme the main international organisations dealing with the drug prob- of drug trafficking is being established in Brazil.This Chair will as- lem, were also present. sociate a research centre and two universities — Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ),The State University of Rio de One of the products of the conference was the publication of Janeiro (UERJ) and the Museu Goeldi in Belem. It should start a book by the Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues and the functioning at the end of 2002 for a period of three years.The MOST Programme, entitled "Drug Trafficking in Sub-Saharan project will be co-ordinated jointly by Alba Zaluar (UERJ), Lia Africa", Paris, Khartala, 1998; 250 p. Osorio Machado (UFRJ) and Roberto Araujo (Museu Goeldi), while associating other institutions as well, notably the USP and A second international conference entitled "Sub-Regional ILANUD of the City of São Paulo and researchers such as Guaracy Workshop on Globalisation and the International Drug Mingardi who has already participated in the project. Problem in Central Asia and Pakistan", was organised by the MOST Programme/UNESCO and the UNDCP in Tashkent, on 14/15 November 1998.This conference brought together nu- 5. Informal Working Group merous officials and representatives from the universities and on Drug-Related Social administrations from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Transformations in Paris Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, in addition to officials from international organisations concerned with the drug Because of the interest and concern generated by the MOST problem and also members of the MOST network, Guilhem Project ,a working group,baptised the "Cluny Group" was set up Fabre and Alain Labrousse. in France.The leaders of this group are Pierre Salama, professor at the Université Paris XIII (University of Paris XIII), and Jean At the end of the conference a book was published,edited by Rivelois and Bernard Castelli, researchers at the Institut de Carlos Milani and Alisher Ikramov, Globalisation and the Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) (Institute of Research on International Drug Problem in Central Asia and Pakistan, Paris/ Development). Recently Jean Cartier-Bresson, professor at the Tashkent,UNESCO and the National Commission of the Republic University of Reims joined the leadership. The working group of Uzbekistan for UNESCO, 1999, 277 p. welcomes as members university teachers and researchers working on the subject of drug trafficking.Now membership has been expended to include criminal economic affairs in general. Since 1998 this group has organised seminars on a regular basis

FORMER NEXT 9 Main Outcomes in Paris with the co-operation of several members of the MOST network and the support of the Institute of Research on Development (IRD) and the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l'Amérique Latine (IHEAL) (Institute of Higher Studies on Latin America). From 22-23 November 2001 at the University of Guadalajara (Mexico), the Working Group organised a Franco- Mexican conference on the theme "The criminalisation of power — corruption and drug trafficking" which brought together university professors and researchers as well as officials from many Latin American countries.

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10 Main Outcomes MAIN FINDINGS . The trafficking of illegal drugs, with the concomitant activity of money laundering,is directly connected to a whole mass of criminal activities (robbery, racketeering, illegal gambling, prostitution, arms dealing, smuggling of goods and people, etc.) of which it is an essential link, given the enormous profits that can be made. Even in cases where criminals specialise in one activity or another, in general they are controlled by one and the same organisation.The general development of criminal activities, in the last twenty to thirty years, is largely explained by the multi- plication of opportunities brought about by financial liberalisation and economic globalisation, in a context of low risk for the big operators.

This impunity is favoured by the gap between the laws and The work undertaken in the framework of this project illus- their application, between the international system of regula- trates,documents and analyses a great number of different prob- tions and the real limits of the means of control and repression. lems connected with the traffic of illegal drugs on the local, re- These limits cannot be explained away solely by the increase in gional,national and international levels.These research findings the ways and means of laundering money both locally and in- refer mainly to the four important countries under this study ternationally by using offshore banks, which create a form of le- (Brazil,China,India and Mexico).Some of the social,political and gal illegality. This impunity is also due to the strategies of the economic problems are already publicly recognised, and others criminal elements,who often manage to neutralise or undermine less so,but all of these problems are controversial because of the the forces of order by using systematic corruption,or even,some- uncertainty of information available on this subject. times, by infiltrating government forces.

However,all the different research done on the subject of the .This infiltration of the government of a country takes dif- traffic of illegal drugs confirms and comments on the serious ferent forms according to the kind of government.At the local level, malfunctions internally and serious problems externally pro- the "profits" made by illegal activities are used in schemes by which voked by the drug market,especially the extreme violence which the drug dealers become economic players in the formal economy occurs in certain large cities, the extraordinary power acquired by laundering the money and using it to stimulate the economy in by some drug traffickers in the cities and sometimes beyond the certain territories, which eventually they end up controlling. In cities in the surrounding regions. Everywhere,young people,and democratic countries this system of "legitimate clients" enables cer- more and more very young people,are the first victims.In a gen- tain criminal elements to get access to the governmentat the local eral context of poverty, unemployment and social marginalisa- regional or even national level, either by financing their own election ,young people are tempted to get money to buy consumer tion campaign or by financing the election of politicians who be- goods by engaging in illegal activities. come obligated to them. In countries that have been ruled for a long time by a unique political party,as in Mexico until 2000 and in But the research has gone beyond the local level,and has en- China since 1949,the government plays the role of arbitrator in the abled us to see the consequences of drug traffic at higher levels legal economy and also plays the role of arbitrator in the illegal where it is more and more difficult to find out what is going on, economy, which makes it easier for some government officials at to understand the impact of drug trafficking on the economy,the the local,regional or even national level to take a share of the prof- financial networks, the specialised public institutions and even its generated by criminal activities, while at the same time main- on government institutions in general. In this regard, some containing a high degree of repression of criminal activities.If one party clusions can be listed: has a monopoly of power,one often sees a kind of a peaceful crim-

NEXT 11 Main Findings inalisation.The “clientelism”mentioned above allows top levels of can be very useful in supplying information that is lacking in the the criminal population,who run the whole show,to profit from the media and in the anti-criminal institutions — to better inform tolerance of the officials who are supposed to control them on the and elucidate public opinion and to influence the decisions and one hand, and on the other hand to profit from a sort of social ag- policies taken by public authorities. grandisement among a certain fringe of the population who often considers these criminal bosses as "heroes" who are above the law.

. The political influence of criminal networks, observed on the local level, as well as regional and national, poses the essential question of the actual capacity of the government to enforce the law.The gap between the law and its very selective application, concentrated on the lower levels of the distribution networks and on the "small fry" among the criminal element, who are also the most visible,leaves a space which is favourable to enterprising criminals, while at the same time making it look like the laws are unenforceable and that the legitimate political institutions are worthless.

. If the illegal traffic of drugs represents only a small percentage of economic activity in comparison to the formal legal economy,nevertheless the money laundering of the profits from the totality of the illegal activities controlled by the criminal networks can have an effect on financial crises.The demonstration has been made for the Mexican financial crisis (1994-1995), as well as for Thaïland (1997) and Japan (since 1990). And further studies could prove these links in other countries like Turkey, Argentina or Nigeria in 2000-2002.

.These important discoveries should push the regulatory authorities on both national and international levels to take these findings in all their ramifications into account when they analyse the situation and plan their action plans and strategies.They must not ignore the relationship between criminal networks and national economies, which goes a long way to explain the growing problem of corruption which has become the focus of study and action in the major international organisations.

Finally,one of the most important conclusions — both for the researchers and for society in general — is the confirmation, in countries that are as complex as Brazil, Mexico, India or China, that socio-economic research can achieve important results on the local regional, national and international levels on subjects which are secretive and often dangerous, and that this research

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12 Main Findings ABSTRACTS Decentralisation, Corruption and OF THE CHAPTERS Criminalisation: China Seen from a Comparative Perspective, Guilhem Fabre, p 23. This chapter aims at interpreting the links between decentralisation,corruption (defined as an attack on possessions) and criminalisation (defined as an attack on people). The Chinese case is viewed from a comparative angle, incorporating the examples of Brazil, Mexico and India. The links established between corruption, decentralisation and criminalisation make it possible to define a basic typology borrowed from the work developed by Christian Geffray. Although it is ruled out in the Chinese case that criminals can become representatives of the State, as in Brazil, India or Thailand, the structures of power and the regulatory pressure it exercises with respect to the economy and society allow,on the other hand,representatives of the State (including its highest levels) to become criminals.These developments make it possible to explain the features of the new campaign against corruption, which is distinguished from the previous ones in that it touches the highest levels of the State, Part 1: DRUG TRAFFICKING is linked to a process of re-centralisation and partly concerns AND THE STATE criminal profits.

Social, Economic and Political The Field of Drug Trafficking in Mexico, Impacts of Drug Trafficking in the Luis Astorga,p 6. State of Rondônia, in the Brazilian Amazon, Christian Geffray, p 33. There are at least three important moments in the history of the interdisciplinary fields that deal with illicit drug trafficking in Drug trafficking has deeply affected social, political and eco- Mexico. In these three moments, the relationship between the nomic life in the Brazilian states bordering Bolivia.This chapter political spheres and drug trafficking are very clear: 1914-1947, analyses and chronicles this "Amazonian cocaine cycle",starting 1947-1985 and 1985-2000.Another moment seems to be emerg- from the early 1980s, in the federal state of Rondônia. It consid- ing after 2 July 2000. The first moment is characterised by the ers how the first major drug trafficking networks were formed; birth of the drug trafficking field itself, under the political pow- the Madeira river gold rush and the wider access to cocaine re- ers. In the second, structural mediations between the political sulting from the barter of stolen or contraband goods together power and the traffickers — such as the police corporations and with the development of a large-scale domestic drug market in the army — had an important role.The third moment shows the Brazil; the commercial decline of Brazil's border towns and the decline of the monopoly of political power by the state party.The boom enjoyed by inland towns as a result of the drug trade.The fourth and last moment begins with the PRI's loss of Presidency author links these historical developments to the rise in power of and of its absolute majority in the Congress.This period is also certain drug traffickers within the federal state machinery marked by the rising importance of the opposition party, the through their election to public office. PAN,and the implementation of a drug policy controlled by the army.

NEXT 13 Abstracts of the chapters History of Two Cities in between the ular to recent growth in the service sector. While violence is, Drug Trafficking: Guajara Mirim and comparatively speaking,less necessary as a guarantee of social Costa Marques, Christian Geffray, p 48. control in that region,the control exercised by drug barons and business people over the executive branches of the state This chapter draws attention to an anthropological insight on means that political life as a whole is crossed by relationships two middle-sized towns in the State of Rondônia in the Amazon forged in the criminal world. region of Brazil.These two towns are located on the Brazil-Bolivia border and are right on the main trade routes for the transit of cocaine over the last twenty years. In many ways the history of Violence Related to Illegal Drugs, the towns is similar: in the eighties there was a period of eco- Easy Money and Justice in Brazil: nomic growth due to the development of commercial activities 1980-1995, Alba Zaluar, p 70. which got their start due to the money and the purchase of legal goods by the Bolivian drug traffickers.Then in the early nineties The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the connections be- another sort of exchange developed — the exchange of cocaine tween drug trafficking and poverty, with particular reference to for stolen goods (cars,trucks,planes) which came from all regions the various official institutional mechanisms that impact on these of Brazil.However,there is one important difference between the connections. It presents the findings of field research done in two towns. In one of them, due to the impetus of a family who three districts of the city of Rio de Janeiro between 1998 and had recently immigrated to the area, the members of the local 2000 and an interpretation of the findings of a survey conducted elite got involved in drug trafficking — following the example of on the functioning of the justice system in Campinas and Rio de the immigrant family — so much so that they were able to con- Janeiro between 1993 and 1998 in respect of drug-related crime. stitute the ownership of several real estate holdings and control The results are provided in the form of statistical data (compiled over the local economy in general.This economic power was suf- on the basis of investigations and judicial cases recorded in the ficient to enable them to also exercise real power in comparison Livro do Tombo of the various criminal courts), interpretations to government institutions and officials. derived from reading 364 case files of trials in 1991 and the results of interviews given by judges, lawyers, public defenders, prosecutors and prisoners in the two cities. The Drug Trade, the Black Economy and Society in Western Amazonia, Roberto Araujo, p 65. Part 2: DRUG TRAFFICKING, CRIMI- NAL ORGANISATIONS AND MONEY This chapter describes some of the main social and political LAUNDERING consequences of the emergence of the cocaine trade in Brazilian Amazonia,taking as an example the state of Acre.Drug trafficking,which concerns all sections of society,has (like other illegal networks) become an alternative to the rubber industry, The Bombay Underworld: which has been in crisis since the 1980s. Its implications differ, a Descriptive Account and Its Role in however,in the Northern and Southern parts of the state.In the Drug Trade, by Molly Charles, K.S Nair, latter, especially in the capital, Acre, the development of a local Gabriel Britto and A.A.Das,p 7. market of urban consumers is closely connected to police corruption and the illegal use of violence by law enforcement This chapter presents a descriptive account of the Bombay agencies.In the former,where machinery for the social redistri- (now,Mumbai) underworld.As an exploratory study,it provides bution of illegal income seems to be more effective,the cocaine only a broad picture of the growth of the Bombay underworld, trade is contributing to a degree of prosperity,thanks in partic- referred to, from this point, as Organised Crime Groups or OCG.

FORMER NEXT 14 Abstracts of the chapters It touches upon the major landmarks that determined its struc- Drug Trafficking in an Urban Area: the ture, activities, nexuses at the institutional level that supported Case of São Paulo, Guaracy Mingardi and its growth,and operations.It also provides insights into the lives Sandra Goulart, p 65. of the gangsters. Primary data were collected through interviews with key informants;secondary data were culled from 250 The literature on organised crime usually presents it as a court judgments under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic trans-national affair: this is what the authors discuss in the case Substances Act (NDPS Act), newspaper clippings over a period of the metropolis of São Paulo.No criminal organisation can man- of 15 years, and magazine articles.This chapter proposes that age without cooperation of people with influence locally, the underworld in Bombay emerged as a result of various gov- whether they are criminals themselves, state official, or employ- ernment policies,unmet needs of citizens due to various system ees.This chapter analyses the types of relationships between for- failures in governance,as well as other socio-economic changes eign criminal organisations involved in drug trafficking and local in the city, inside and outside the country. Brazilian criminal organisations. It also presents an overview of the organisation of the drug market in the city, deepening the study of a local "open drug supermarket area" in the inner city, Drug Trafficking and the Informal named Crackland. Market in Rio de Janeiro, Alba Zaluar,p 51. This chapter is mainly concerned with activities of the in- Drug Trafficking and Consumption in formal drug market in Brazil and the social and cultural changes China: Case Studies from Two Cities that accompany it at the local level. It leaves outside the inten- in Guangdong Province, Deng Zhenglaï, p 85. tions or consequences of the Brazilian government's law enforcement policies and techniques.The main question that this This chapter presents the results of a pioneer research on chapter deals with is how the effects of poverty and accelerated drug trafficking and consumption in China that has substan- urbanisation and immigration are linked to the existing insti- tially grown in the last years.This research work has been con- tutional mechanisms and the presence of networks of organ- ducted at a national level, based on existing and unpublished ised crime.The effects of poverty and accelerated urbanisation, documentation and, at a local level, on field surveys accom- although they are clearly connected with the results and causes plished in two towns (Guangzhou and Shenzhen) in the of exclusion,are less responsible for organised crime,unless we Guangdong Province. It analyses successively the geographi- consider the relationship with organised legal businesses and cal,the economic and the sociological dimensions of drug traf- the institutional support from state agencies.Therefore,the re- ficking. lated issues of violence, criminality and insecurity cannot be properly understood if removed from the larger political and economic framework. Assuming that many poor young men Drug Trafficking in Southern Africa: have been in a state of vulnerability due to the crisis within fam- the Legacy of War and Apartheid, ilies (quarrels between adults and youngsters), the inefficient Laurent Laniel, p 110. school system and the lack of professional training added to insufficient employment possibilities, the article presents argu- This chapter presents the main results of a field assessment ments that further the idea of "perverse integration". of the geopolitics of illegal drugs in twelve countries of Southern Africa carried out in mid-1997.The study focuses on drug production, trafficking, consumption, money laundering and state control measures thereof.The overall objective of this paper is to explore the seemingly paradoxical question of why Southern Africa became both a major export and transit hub, and an ex-

FORMER NEXT 15 Abstracts of the chapters panding market for international flows of illegal drugs after the Drug Trafficking and Money end of most regional conflicts and of apartheid and not when it Laundering in the Amazon Region: was prey to institutionalised racism and war.The data gathered Geoeconomic and Geopolitical in the field is arranged into four sections.The first section focuses Effects, Lia Osorio Machado, p 151. on the central role played by the Republic of South Africa on the regional drug scene; each of the remaining three sections re- A geographical perspective of illicit drug trafficking and views a macro-level source of explanation for the mutation of money laundering activities points to the difference that place Southern African drug geopolitics.The three factors are "ethnic- makes in their dynamics. Differences in territorial configura- political divides"; the "infrastructural legacy of conflicts"; and tions are evaluated by agents at the operational level as are the "barter". It is argued that studying the interplay of these macro- elements of distance, relative position and accessibility of factors is necessary, although not sufficient, in order to under- places.The first section presents a brief survey of the evolving stand the change.The chapter ends on a broad "snapshot" of the symbiotic relationship between the organisations running the Southern African drug scene, suggesting that drug activities are illicit drug trade and the banking and financial system,with fo- one of the modes in which substantial,historical,political,social, cus on the Brazilian section of the Amazon River Basin.The sec- and economic arrangements are expressed and reproduced ond section draws a parallel between the Brazilian and the within Southern Africa and between it and the rest of the world. Western sections of the Amazon Basin in South America in terms of the organisational modes of international drug trafficking networks and particular geoeconomic traits of territo- Drug Trafficking in the Brazilian rial settlement.The third section discusses money laundering and drug trafficking control measures in Brazil, their geopoliti- Amazon, Regine Schönenberg, p 125. cal implications in the Amazon region and the positive effects In regions which are being exposed to fast processes of social it has had on the country’s restructuring of banking and finan- transformations arise spaces with diminished or no state regula- cial practices. tion, interrupted social links and informal economies. In the Brazilian Amazon during the past 30 years,this has been the case in regions of traditional occupation as well as in regions of in- Criminal Prosperities, Financial Crisis tense migration. The respective local construction or re-con- and Money Laundering: the Case of struction of social patterns,of power-relations,of institutions and Mexico in a Comparative Perspective, of redistributional networks can provide fertile grounds for new Guilhem Fabre, p 172. criminal activities,such as cocaine trafficking.After a short introduction, the national and international contexts of the investi- The criminal economy differs from corruption in that it is nec- gated region are outlined in this chapter.The description of the essarily based on the existence of networks and on the use or “scene of action”provides the background for the exposition of threat of violence, when corruption proves ineffective. Its rev- two Amazonian examples: the case study of the traditional river enues,derived not only from drug trafficking,but also from other community,Abaetetuba in Western Pará and the drug trafficking illegal or legal activities such as human smuggling, prostitution, case of LDM who created the so-called "Suri-Cartel" with its bases arms trafficking and gambling,may influence the post-Cold War in the frontier region of Southern Pará. Concluding, the article financial crisis,as it is demonstrated in the case of Japan,Thailand tries to identify corner stones that shape the regional and local and especially Mexico.To understand the correspondence be- outcome of processes of fast social transformations regarding tween exogenous and endogenous factors behind the Mexican the underlying causes of receptivity for international drug traf- crisis of 1994-1995, we take into account the repatriation of 3 to ficking. 8 billions narco-dollars from the North American market (superior to the Mexican oil exports),and we demonstrate that money laundering has stimulated local consumption of US goods and

FORMER NEXT 16 Abstracts of the chapters local speculative and unproductive investments, from small poor neighbourhoods. Although one should bear in mind the businesses to the stock and real estate markets, thus accelerat- historical background of the economic, social and political ing the current account deficit.The "tequila effect" is thus linked changes in which violence and drug traffic thrive, the paper fo- to a "cocaine effect". cus on the data obtained in several fieldwork researches, mainly the last one done from 1997 to 2000.The latter compares data on crimes and social indicators,interpreting them on the light of the Part 3: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DI- ethnographical material about the styles of drug use and traf- MENSIONS ficking in three different districts of Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana, OF DRUG TRAFFICKING in the richest zone of the city;Tijuca,in a predominantly middle- class area; Madureira, in a predominantly poor section. It describes how young favelados are attracted to the dangers and virility ethos of a certain style of drug dealing in which many lose Culture and the Drug Scene in India, their lives. Molly Charles and Gabriel Britto,p 4. Cultural diversity in India has nurtured various associations The Social Construction of the Identity with mind-altering substances over centuries, without causing of the Trafficker, Luis Astorga, p 39. any great alarm about drug abuse.This chapter, using research conducted by the authors and other secondary data,attempts to The objective of this chapter is to analyse the origin,the de- present socio-cultural-religious,functional patterns of drug use in velopment and the main characteristics of the symbolic pro- the country and examines some of the factors responsible for the duction of drug trafficking and traffickers in Mexico. Legal and drastic changes that have occurred since the 1980s.Specifically,it physical confrontations among traffickers and authorities, or points out that the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances their cooperation, are reconstructed in a particular discourse: (NDPS) Act,1985,took away the responsibility of drug abuse con- drug ballads, for instance.The meaning of drug traffickers rela- trol from the community norms to the near defunct legal estab- tionships; the synthesis of the categories and schemes of per- lishment; that by criminalising socio-religious-cultural-recre- ception serving these social agents to find their place into the ational use of opium and cannabis,it has promoted the prolifera- world; the reason of their existence; the construction and re- tion of alcohol, heroin and other more harmful pharmaceutical construction of their identity; all those elements are versified, drug; that it has given a new lease of life for the organised crime put into songs and introduced into the market of symbolic cre- syndicates;and that denial of access to low cost,accessible health ation (often indirectly and not necessarily in a voluntary way). care at the hands of traditional healers is one of the unintended This may represent a competition to the official discourse on consequences which needs immediate rectification.It makes cer- drug trafficking and traffickers; thus,it may break the traditional tain policy recommendations for the UN bodies, member States monopoly in terms of rhetoric and messages of the govern- and to policy makers in India in particular. mental officials on this subject.

Violence in Rio de Janeiro: Styles of Leisure, Drug Use and Trafficking, Alba Zaluar, p 31. The aim of this chapter is to understand the connections between poverty and drug traffic at retail level,approaching the devices that provoked economic, social and political changes in

FORMER NEXT 17 Abstracts of the chapters Part 4: METHODOLOGICAL, opened up considerably, particularly to all economic and fi- INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY nancial criminal activities. DIMENSIONS OF THE RESEARCH ON DRUG TRAFFICKING: LESSONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM FRANCE The Relationship between Social AND THE UNITED STATES Science Research and Drug Control Policy in the United States, with a Focus on the Drugs-Crime Nexus, Certainties and Uncertainties as Laurent Laniel,p 20. Regards Illicit Drug Trafficking: This chapter gives a broad overview of the social science re- Research Lessons in the Case of search on drugs carried out in the United States.It attempts to France, Michel Schiray,p 1. examine the problems raised by drugs in the United States by Based on the experience of various research projects on drug reviewing current issues and their historical sources. trafficking in France that were started seven years ago,this chap- Acknowledging that the United States is the largest producer ter sets out the main obstacles that hinder research and the proof drug research in the world, while it is also the world’s only duction of sound knowledge in the field of a "criminal" activity "drug-control superpower",this paper suggests,however,that that is secret by definition.This activity has its economic, social the simultaneous leadership in social science and world and sometimes political importance now recognised at both the agenda setting is not the result of a symbiotic relationship be- local and national levels (in most countries of the world), and of tween American research and policy-making.It is divided into course at the international level.From an institutional perspective, two main sections, one on domestic issues related to drug- the article shows that administrations are reluctant to support re- abuse and trafficking, and a second section on main interna- search and to share archives of knowledge under their control as tional problems currently considered by American social sci- a result of repressive policies.From the methodological perspec- ence research on drugs. tive, it examines the complementarity of direct and indirect approaches which may make up for the lack of significant and set up information from official sources.Finally,this chapter presents the main findings of research carried out through the exploration of local reality and a later broadening of the scope of analysis to the national and international levels.

From the Discovery of Drug Trafficking to the Recognition of Economic and Financial Crime: the Various Stages of a Decade of Francophone Studies on the Subject, Michel Schiray,p 8. Based on a selection of thirty-six books written in French (essays,journalists' inquiries,professional testimonies or scientific research), this chapter aims at analysing the recent development of knowledge production in the field of drug trafficking at the international level.Indeed,international research has

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18 Abstracts of the chapters General Introduction as far as the extent of the phenomenon and its implications for RESEARCH ON DRUG each of the actors concerned.The time has come today to face TRAFFICKING, up to the fact that we are in an exceptional area of an "informa- ECONOMIC CRIME AND tional circus". The work of repression of drug-traffickers and seizure of products,which sometimes requires great courage and THEIR ECONOMIC AND high intellectual and technical skills from police authorities in SOCIAL charge of control and repression, provides the only indicators CONSEQUENCES: that allow us to follow the movement of drugs and to estimate CONTRIBUTIONS TO the amounts.But the work of repression is not always very rigor- FORMULATE ous. This work can be problematic, often dictated by strategic RECOMMENDATIONS motives,sometimes legitimate (for police action) and sometimes FOR NATIONAL AND wholly illegitimate,unlawful and even literally criminal.We must INTERNATIONAL indeed recognise and state, for strictly scientific purposes, that, PUBLIC CONTROL in general,and to various degrees — and this applies to every re- POLICIES gion of the world — criminal activities are linked to drug-trafficking in particular and are also closely connected at some lev- Christian Geffray, Michel els with the authorities in charge of their control.Therefore, can Schiray and Guilhem Fabre we depend on the information that they supply to us? Since one cannot be satisfied with the "routine" data supplied by the offi- Drugs have been the object of universal study for centuries, cial institutions, the production of primary data (mainly qualita- and a large amount of research of a scientific nature has been un- tive) becomes a complex challenge. dertaken with a new intensity, in the United States in the first place beginning in the sixties at least,and in the course of the last The present work seeks to attempt to go beyond the common two decades in most European countries as well as in all other knowledge of drug trafficking presented by the press and spe- large regions of the world.The emphasis has frequently been put cialised institutions or general pieces of work, which have been on the problems arising from the use and abuse of drugs, their drafted essentially on the basis of secondary data.In the four large social consequences and health implications, as well as on the countries where we were able to concentrate our research (India, policies of prevention and treatment of drug addiction. China, Brazil and Mexico), a wide range of methods was experi- Gradually, the need for a deeper understanding of the supply of mented and developed to attempt to build a solid basis of knowl- products and the consequences of illegal drug markets became edge with a view to support interpretations on the large social, apparent, not only as regards the circumstances of drug con- economic and political phenomena which surround drug traf- sumption, but also because of the effects on society and the ficking and other criminal activities to which it is linked.Obviously, economy as a whole.This is what this research report has partic- the research team has not been able to deeply examine all the ularly focused upon. questions raised. In this report, the collected information is divided into three main parts.The first one enables us to discuss the The key problem of research on and the understanding of the question of the relationship between the State, drug trafficking questions of drug trafficking and their effects on the economy and criminals.The second develops a range of questions on the and society results obviously from the hidden nature of this area organisation of drug trafficking,its links with other criminal activ- of activity,which is directly linked to its illegal dimension.The orities and its economic and social consequences. The third part ganisation of this field of activity is outside the law,and therefore, completes the work by emphasising more specifically the socio- outside any system of controlled information.The consequences cultural dimensions. A fourth part of this research report deals are serious:when talking about drug trafficking,one can say any- with methodological, institutional and policy dimensions of the thing from the point of view of quantitative measures and also research on drug trafficking.

NEXT 19 General introduction This work as a whole encourages a permanent circulation of The work carried out by this project brings to light many in- the issues that were raised at different levels,from the local to the sights for a deeper knowledge in the field of drugs research. It global with a particular importance given to the national level.It shows the usefulness of a research effort, to complement infor- enables one to show the links between the social,political,legal, mation from police sources,which are necessarily limited and de- and cultural factors,on the one hand,and the economic and the fined according to operational objectives of repression. This financial questions, on the other. It shows the importance of the knowledge applies not only to the realities of the organisation of inter-disciplinary effort undertaken in the course of the project drug trafficking and criminal activities linked to it; but more im- between anthropologists,sociologists,geographers,political sci- portantly the research allows a wider reflection on the conse- entists and economists. It also allows the development of com- quences of those activities taken as a whole on the economy and parative approaches, which are essential to a more in-depth un- society,and provides sufficiently stable and confirmed elements derstanding of the various forms of development of drug traf- of understanding in this field.The means that were available in ficking and of its consequences in different countries and a vari- the accomplishment of this work remained modest in relation to ety of local contexts. the magnitude of the task and the scientific and political challenges raised by these topics. On the other hand, they show the Undoubtedly, one of the most important practical goals of importance of supporting and developing these areas of re- this project is to show that even within the shadowy areas of search in order to transfer to the public and the political decision large-scale economic crime,socio-economic research is possible. makers information and ideas which are not events-driven or When carried out under strict deontological rules, with intelli- sensationalised by the media,and by the over cautious strategies gence and scientific caution,it is not as dangerous as many of our of law inforcement institutions and politicians. academic colleagues would like to claim. It constitutes a vital stake for social understanding and political decision making, in Research on drug trafficking confirms the links between all order to go beyond the "informational circus" which qualifies criminal activities of an economic nature.These links are mainly these topics,ever since the appearance of the first detective sto- shown through human and social ties.They are expressed within ries which invaded the literature and written publications, even activities or territories,and finally through the financial circles of before cinema and television. These media and mass culture money laundering, at the different geographical, local, regional, bases have greatly facilitated a certain interpretation of daily national or world levels. Illegal drug trafficking holds,however,a events by newspapers and general public magazines. They particularly interesting position within the whole context of crim- largely influence the formation of public opinion,whereas infor- inal economic activities. It is based on products of mass con- mation coming from public institutions and from scientific re- sumption which are prohibited by law, at an international level, search remains for too long extremely discreet and reserved to at least as far as production and trade are concerned. It is origi- some academic spheres. nal and deserves a particular attention on that account. Even prostitution or trade of human beings or human organs,or arms, What is really serious and what scientific research can prove, strategic materials or dangerous waste, subject to strict regula- is that whereas certain "homes" of these criminal activities, such tions,are not the object of such an extensive prohibition.The pro- as poor or disadvantaged districts of large towns, are the object hibited parts of these activities are merely unlawful "extensions" of an often incessant repression and social stigmatisation, other or "appendix" of sectors that claim to be socially controlled or,let sectors benefit not only from a surprising impunity,but also from us say, legally accepted. Most criminal activities of an economic an often shocking tolerance by public control institutions and nature correspond to corruption,abusive levies (theft and extor- the public opinion. It is true that big economic crime requires a tion) or evasion of the law and regulations, in particular in tax certain amount of discretion with few directly visible nuisances, matters (smuggling,games,tax fraud).Money laundering circles when it is not also the object of social recognition, with admira- of an illegal origin, through increasing the value of these activi- tion and gratitude felt towards some of its "heroes".These con- ties,obviously recover the whole of their products and profits.All trasts are socially and politically dangerous. the latter activities may be considered as "parasitic" in relation to

FORMER NEXT 20 General introduction the activities of the official economy. Activities relating to illegal ethical dilemma, which we consider essential, between prohibi- drugs constitute completely "autonomous" channels(1) ,and pro- tion/legalisation.Rather,as the implied hypotheses of the project duction,consumption and distribution systems develop accord- indicated,the question concerns the capacity of governance and ing to specific logics, all unlawful and subject to and largely de- control of an international system of prohibition, at the various termined by police and judicial repression. Under particular cir- territorial levels, from the local to the global.What the examples cumstances,which are linked to the unlawful nature of these ac- given by the project show is not only the involvement of high tivities,these activities can be the object of levies of a criminal na- level political decision-makers in the world of crime,but also the ture in the shape of extortion and corruption,on the part of crim- massive involvement of agents on the ground — at various hier- inal circles as well as some sectors or members of public institu- archical levels — responsible for repression and control who suc- tions in charge of repressing them. ceed in changing the configurations of the drug market in particular, to such an extent that the scientific researcher can no One of the main questions of this research project relates to longer clearly recognise who rules the game and who benefits challenges posed by drug trafficking,considered as the result of from it: is it the trafficker or the person who is responsible for its a global prohibition regime set up on an international level. control and repression? Challenges are also put forward for the governance and the capacity of States,local authorities and international organisations These observations seem to apply, obviously in different de- to control not only the development of drug trafficking but,more grees, in socio-political contexts as varied as Mexico, Brazil, India importantly,their social,economic,political and institutional con- or China and at all territorial levels,from the local to the national. sequences. One of the essential contributions of this work is in- It would, indeed, appear that the experience acquired in the deed to show how criminal activities and criminals can, within course of the last decades, with the intensification and a certain certain contexts and at certain times, strike alliances with State clarification of objectives in the fight against economic crime and representatives through corruption schemes and parallel mar- drug trafficking in particular, should allow the formation of a kets.This work also shows how economic crime can lead to the number of simple but globally important questions on the effi- access of criminal men to state appointments and public re- ciency of national public policies and international systems of sponsibilities. These links and associations create truly serious control and co-operation. problems for governance at all territorial levels,from the local to the global. They must be considered as a key world problem, Everyone by now has understood that the extraordinary mainly because they concern the very legitimacy of those who profits, in volume, coming from strictly criminal activities and are responsible for making laws and more importantly for im- trafficking in illegal drugs in particular, are coveted not only by plementing them. large and small scale criminals, but also by representatives of the world of business and commerce as well as by State agents. At the most operational level, all enquiries carried out in the Numerous sectors of official economic activities lend them- four countries confirm the astonishing involvement of a number selves more readily to a direct participation in criminal activi- of representatives of those institutions responsible for fighting ties, starting, among the more exposed, with sectors of trans- crime in general and drug trafficking in particular with criminal port and freight, tourism, leisure or the financial sectors, which activities.This creates a complex problem for the researcher as offer practical logistics to the development of drug trafficking. regards information and knowledge.But the problem is still more As far as public authorities are concerned, all research shows serious for society,which is submitted to an international regime that,at the bottom line,there is an easy collusion by the agents of prohibition, which de facto accepts social, economic and po- responsible for the control of local illegal markets, who easily litical ascent and influence of criminal lords,and the involvement secure for themselves levies on the profits of these activities to of state agents into economic crimes. This observation is not supplement their salary. Beyond that, there is also an example without weight.It contributes to the idea that the main question in which the control of criminal activities is actually carried out of the drug problem is probably not so much the fundamental by persons who are officially responsible for their repression.

FORMER NEXT 21 General introduction These situations are a reversal of positions within the objectives at national level, such as tobacco and alcohol, or more generally of control.They obviously raise the key question of the capac- in relation to goods subject to control such as some agricultural ity to implement the existing policies.This capacity is not only products.The general liberalisation movement has undoubtedly a question of practical means, in manpower and equipment, contributed to a new increase in these fields of smuggling activ- but is primarily related to the moral and professional values ities. However, one of the characteristic features, at the world held by the members of the institutions whose task is to fight level,of the general movement of globalisation and liberalisation crime, and of the systems of internal and social control.These of commercial and financial exchanges, is the increased control situations at operational ground level merely reflect,in all their and restrictions over movements of people and the workforce. territorial extent, and often in a caricatured way, the limits of This has opened a new large field for criminal activities con- moral and social probity within States,their administration and nected with the clandestine import of workers and also with some of their representatives.Without preconception nor a de- prostitution,as well as other forms of trafficking in human beings. sire to overemphasise the question, the results of the research The broadening of these systems of increased restrictions, pro- carried out in the four countries converge ultimately in giving tectionism or prohibition has thus opened new areas for the par- the greatest importance to "complicity" relationships or even ticularly organised criminal sectors, from a human and social sometimes actual alliances between public officials,sometimes point of view,and over which it appears more and more difficult at the highest level, not only with the criminal world but also to exercise any form of control. within criminal economic circles. As a result, the legitimacy of international systems of repression is definitely not strength- These observations take us back again to the problem of gov- ened, in that it is failing to maintain clear boundaries between ernance and capacities of States and international institutions to the world of law,that of outlaws and the political and economic dictate rules and laws — which may well be fundamentally in officials who are placed above the law. force — without assessing the full measure of the political and economic implications of their reinforcement.This disproportion Several observations throughout the study showed a serious ultimately opens spaces, which can be vast in some sectors, in dysfunction of control over legal, economic and political systems which criminal activities develop and which unfold precisely in at different territorial levels,from the local to the global.They force the gaps between the law and the means to enforce it. One can one to consider seriously the discrepancies between current sys- currently witness, with the new opportunities generated by the tems and the socio-economic realities that have been going globalisation and liberalisation movement, a parallel develop- through great change in the course of the last decades.This leads ment of opportunities for crimes of an economic nature and the us to place at the centre of our analysis the question of an in-depth impunity concerning them. International institutions and many revision of the rules of the game at a world level,including the laws States have, of course, responded to most of these challenges by and the institutions whose task it is to implement them. setting up specialised organisations and involving the sectors of administration dealing with these matters. Nonetheless, the im- There is no doubt that since the 1980s and particularly in the portant effort deployed on the legislative and institutional fronts 1990s, the acceleration of globalisation and the liberalisation of at State level as well as at the international co-ordination level re- economies and international exchanges,in particular in financial mains well below what those challenges require. At the national matters, have also aided the development of criminal economic level, in particular, gaps between material and financial — but activities. It has undoubtedly led to changes in the contents of also of course political — capacities for the effective implemen- such activities by helping those more directly connected with tation of these policies are huge. The United States, then the such developments,such as trafficking in illegal drugs or money European Union and all the countries of the OECD were the first laundering in connection with criminal activities.The smuggling to adopt laws and set up institutional and operational instru- of legal goods,on the other hand,should have taken a lesser po- ments to fight against economic crimes.Most "emerging" coun- sition with the reduction of customs taxation.Yet it has reached tries attempted,often with an impressive vigour,to adopt similar an increased level in respect to some goods,subject to high taxes instruments.But what means can the most "marginalized" coun-

FORMER NEXT 22 General introduction tries,in Africa in particular,expect to adopt? Yet everyone has un- ment of national and international capital flows of criminal ori- derstood, using the experience of financial markets, that the ex- gin as well as investments into the real official economy to istence of "tax heavens" and "off-shore markets" makes it ex- which they give rise. tremely difficult to control and fight against crime, which now takes place at the world level. These trends lead us to emphasise,as regards the evaluation of public policies and recommendations, the worrying discrep- At an international level, institutions of the United Nations ancies between the rigour of international systems of prohibition specialised in crime and drug trafficking have been set up for and regulation,the national legal systems relating to criminal ac- decades.They have played an essential part in the mobilisation tivities of an economic nature,and the weakness of national and of States in this matter and the extension of legislative instru- international capacities in enforcing them.These discrepancies ments of control throughout the world. However, their opera- are at the origin of a perversion of the institutions responsible for tional or support means are extremely limited.The most oper- control,through collusion and corruption largely stemming from ational police institutions - Interpol – or customs services, as their representatives.They also allow for alliances between the well as legal co-operation systems, which attempt to set them- worlds of criminals with that of those who govern us, when the selves up at an international level, are confronted by the limi- former has not directly penetrated the latter.We think that these tations of the national intervention capacities of the different serious findings must be considered to their full extent first, be- countries.These police institutions encounter particularly intri- fore we present sustainable recommendations for public policy cate problems as regards co-operation, exchange and sharing making. Indeed, we do not feel one can support the all too fre- of information, and the coordination of their respective proce- quent opportunist cynicism which consists in acknowledging dures to respond to the extent necessary at an international the seriousness of the problems examined and offering a few level. International financial institutions, such as the more or less original measures pretending to resolve these prob- International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, publicly en- lems,without undertaking an in-depth work of reflection associ- dorsed the importance of these issues much later, whereas fi- ating researchers with representatives of operational sectors of nancial circuits were among the first involved in the movement activities of control and political officials.This is what we wish to of profits of criminal origin,whether coming from strictly crim- undertake in the wake of this research report. inal sectors or from quite official,private or public ones and resulting from tax fraud,corruption or various misappropriations. The analysis carried out in the course of this project in the case of Mexico in the last few years even seems to show a possible The Scientific Coordinators of the Report direct link between movements of laundering of funds originating from crime and the financial crises experienced. However,the methods of intervention of international financial institutions in these areas still remain insufficiently precise. In spite of the caution generally displayed in these areas by the OECD,it was the governments of the G7 countries who took the initiative to raise the loudest alarm warnings on this world problem and who supported the setting up of systems of prevention and repression.An increasing number of countries adhere to these systems today, through the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering, the GAFI. Further to more than a decade of experimentation of these systems, the results achieved in the various countries are not negligible but remain far from the goal of controlling and repressing the develop-

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23 General introduction Introduction The magnitude of such scandals in many countries and on DRUG TRAFFICKING all continents has prompted some researchers or commenta- AND THE STATE tors to point to the existence of an ongoing process of "State criminalisation".This elliptical,evocative expression refers to the Christian Geffray illegal character of activities undertaken by some representatives of the State — activities that can become a cause for concern when they take on a systematic character.Be that as it may, and whatever the nature of the relations between criminals and State representatives, between outlaws and representatives of the law, such ties always suggest a form of corruption. It is this generic pattern of State delinquency — corruption — that we wish to underscore here.The chapters presented below demonstrate that the form of corruption prevailing in a given country is strictly dependent upon the nature of the State and the balance of power that holds between State institutions and drug trafficking networks. In this regard, the case of Mexico, where the civil service remained for a long time under the de facto tutelage of a single party, may show a greater similarity to the case of China than, for example, to that of Brazil or Colombia. Brazil, Mexico and China, which are the focus of this part, are known today for their role in the international movement of drugs (cocaine in Brazil and Mexico, and heroin in China) as well Autonomous Traffickers as,in the case of Mexico,in the production of cannabis.These are very large, economically diversified countries, where, unlike in It must be borne in mind — however obvious this may seem producing countries such as Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Pakistan, — that all traffickers are faced with the problem of having to es- Afghanistan and Burma,the drug trade plays a relatively marginal cape the severity of the law, either by going into hiding or, macroeconomic role.However,these illegal activities can have a when the scope or nature of their activities is such that secrecy far more significant impact on the political arena than on the na- may not be guaranteed, by circumventing the representatives tional economy. Several legal cases have exposed the involve- of the State whose job it is to enforce the law.Various means of ment in drug trafficking of some of these countries’ senior civil neutralizing the law can then be used, as a result of which a servants. Over the past ten years, these cases have caused a stir number of officials renounce the exercise of their duties in the in the international media.Some of them are mentioned by Luis struggle against drug traffickers while retaining their position Astorgas in his chapter on Mexico, by Guilhem Fabre in the case — since their resignation would serve no purpose.These offi- of China and by the present writer in the context of Brazil.What cials’act of renunciation, coupled with their failure to relinquish exactly,then,do these sensational episodes represent in relation their office,is at the very core of the corruptive transaction.Such to the situation of the elective, executive and judicial adminis- an act entails the repudiation of the ideals of the State that the trations and authorities in these countries? Beyond the scandals, corrupt officials have pledged to uphold in principle, and im- which can as such affect any State at any point in time, the au- parts from the outset to those practices a moral dimension that thors have endeavoured to understand the nature of existing re- cannot be left out of any analysis aimed at understanding and lations between State institutions and the traffic in narcotics, or, measuring the effects of such practices. As for the criminals, more broadly in the case of China, the relations of State institu- they deal with the institution of the State as a whole in the tions with criminal activities of which drug trafficking is only one same manner as with every one of the individual officials they facet. corrupt:they manage to induce the State to both relinquish the

NEXT 1 Introduction exercise of its responsibility against them and remain in place not confine themselves to circumventing elected officials.They (politics proper being of no interest to them). are then in a position to consider capturing elective State offices and filling those offices themselves.The latter approach differs On the part of the traffickers, the ordinary corruption proce- from the ordinary procedures of State neutralization (corrup- dure thus consists in prompting the representatives of the State tion, funding of electoral campaigns). In this case, criminals be- to renege on their commitment by enticing them through the come, both personally and officially, the servants of the very promise of some material gain, service or particularly attractive State whose laws they violate,as some sectors of State adminis- and providential riches,and then resorting,if necessary,to threats tration are placed under their legal responsibility.This is one of of some terrible evil — including the death of the official or of the the alarming patterns of contemporary criminalization of the ac- official’s relatives. In the course of our research, we all encoun- tivities of State representatives. An example of this pattern was tered police officers,judges and journalists who either had been notoriously displayed in Colombia during the 1970s.One of the the victims of such neutralization attempts, or had come across articles below (see C. Geffray) deals with the lesser-known case documents similar to the one reproduced below(1): of the federate State of Rondônia in Brazil,where traffickers won elections for mayor, state deputy, federal deputy and senator. "Dear colleague! Henrique.Faithful friend.We had hoped that you One of them would have been elected governor of the state in would keep to our arrangement.You know what this is about! No? 1990 had he not been assassinated a few days before the sec- You know yes Henrique,you are the one who forgot it.Not us.You had ond ballot. promised to inform us about any investigation on us.It’s very lucky for us that you can be bought — for a very cheap price — you’re not even worth a pack of cigarettes.Do you remember that you helped Traffickers under Special Protection us in some difficult situations? Where we earned millions and you earned pennies? Henrique is such an idiot that he didn’t even realize There are many other modes of "State criminalisation".What he was being used.He sold himself for: packs of cigarettes — a few happens in Colombia, or to a much lesser degree in Brazil, India (1) This message was sent by drug traffickers to an beers — some whisky and a few litres of gasoline.To us,you are a zero or Thailand,where corruption is initiated from outside the State, officer of the Civil Police named Henrique. It was (…) because your colleagues’ life is hanging by a thread,thanks to bears no resemblance to what happens as a result of the same found in a drawer at the officer’s police station in Cacoal during a search carried out by the Federal you.You’re going to pay for all this very dearly, your days are num- drug trafficking operations in Mexico or China,for example.Luis Police in 1991 (Abdiel Rabelo File, 1991, archives of bered because you did not keep to our arrangement." Astorgas has endeavoured for years to dispel the very notion, the Regional Superintendence of the Federal Police, conveyed by the press, public opinion and Mexican public fig- Porto Velho,Rondônia).It is reproduced below in its The traffickers’ financial power and the mediocrity of the of- ures,that drug trafficking developed independently of the State original typography, including the misspellings: ficials’ income are well known in Brazil, as well as in most coun- and gradually corrupted the latter from the outside."The creation "CARO COLEGA! Henrique/FIEL/ ESPERAVAMOS QUE VOCE FOSSE AO NOSSOS TRATOS.Sabe o que é! Não? tries involved in drug trafficking. It is thus easy to measure the of a State party in 1929, the monopolistic character of political sabe sim henrrique,você é que esqueceu.Nós não.Você corrupting influence that the outlaws can potentially exert at ev- power and the military control of the national territory have ren- prometeu nos informar sobre qualquer investigação ery echelon of the government hierarchy before they have re- dered the autonomous development of significant groups of illegal ao nosso respeito.a nossa maior sorte é que você tem course to death threats, as well as the vulnerability of those sec- drug traffickers virtually impossible. However spontaneous the um preço = MUITO BAIXO = não chega a valer uma tors of the State apparatus that are exposed. In many Latin emergence of some of those groups may have been,the latter found bagana de cigarro./Lembra quando você nos ajudou a sair de alguma situação difíceis? Onde ganhamos American countries as well as in India,Thailand, etc., the traffick- themselves faced at some point with a far stronger power structure milhões e você CENTAVOS? Henrrique é tão otário que ers’financial resources also allow them to act upstream of the es- that compelled them to forfeit a substantial part of their gains" (see nem percebeu que estava sendo USADO. Se vendeu tablishment of the State’s organizational chart, by contributing below L.Astorgas).In other words,State representatives enjoyed, por:maços de cigarro —cervejinhas — uísque e litrin- to the funding of electoral campaigns. In so doing, they secure for decades,sufficient power and self-confidence to deal directly hos de gazolina./Tu és vagabundo para NÓS, (…) the silence and goodwill of some elected representatives.If they with drug traffickers and spare them from the severity of the law porque coloca a vida dos seus colegas por um fio de ca- belo/TUDO ISSO VAI CUSTAR MUITO CARO PARA VOCÊ operate shrewdly,they can even manage to keep the latter gen- if they agreed to hand over a share of their illegal profits in re- OS SEUS DIAS ESTÃO CONTADOS PORQUE NÃO uinely unaware of the criminal source of those funds… Once turn. CUMPRIU O TRATO (VIDA JAZ)". their clientele has become strong enough, some traffickers do

FORMER NEXT 2 Introduction Alba Zaluar (see below) demonstrates that Mexican-style acts ference is less a product of the intensity of drug trafficking, the of public extortion have been documented in Brazil at the level magnitude of the trafficking population or the volume of illegal of small-scale redistribution.In Rio de Janeiro,for example,police wealth circulating in the national economy (which is significantly officers extort money from consumers, in particular from the greater in Colombia and Mexico than in Brazil) than of the pat- "poorest, who do not have the resources to make a "deal". Users tern of the historical balance of power between State institutions prefer to (…) become accomplices to the extortion,and they ar- and traffickers. gue that it is better to pay, to "hand over the dough" and reach an agreement than to be exposed to the legal consequences. Just as the Institutional Revolutionary Party presided de facto Some are suspicious of police officers,whom they see as "crooks over the destiny of the Mexican State for more than 70 years, so in uniforms",and this exposes them to abuse by the police force. there exists in China a powerful and permanent civil service,which They draw attention to the figure of the "thuggish" police officer to this day operates under the tutelage of a single party that has who arrests, beats, and in some cases kills".Yet, unlike in Mexico, been exercising its sovereignty over the de jure State since 1949.As wholesale traffickers do not seem to be involved in such prac- in the case of Mexico,the recent liberalization and decentralization tices (in the course of our investigations in Brazil, we once came process in the Chinese economy seems to have facilitated the cre- across the case of a Military Police officer from the State of Mato ation within the State apparatus of internal networks that abuse Grosso who demanded a bribe of $200,000 to look the other way their power in order to control and siphon off the proceeds from il- regarding a substantial delivery of cocaine.He was gunned down legal activities. Clearly, the public functions that the Chinese by the traffickers along with his family in Rondonópolis in Communist administration has fulfilled since 1949 have been vastly September 1995, and thus never achieved his ends). different from those exercised by its Mexican nationalist counterpart. Guilhem Fabre (see below) demonstrates how, "in their new Unlike in Brazil, the corrupt transactions in Mexico were managerial role, local authorities, monopolistic central authorities, hence for a long time initiated by officials or elected representa- or even some central institutions such as the military,the armed po- tives from the "State party" (a de facto single party), who, as it lice forces, the public security forces and the judicial system have were,set their price for relinquishing the exercise of their duty in tended to maximize profits from economic activities carried out un- the fight against Mexican outlaws.Only in the last decade,as the der their tutelage by limiting all forms of competition". political monopoly of the Institutional Revolutionary Party on the Nevertheless,as in Mexico,the implementation of this policy fosters government of the federate states (and subsequently on the fed- the creation of coercive administrative networks (in the area of tax- eral level since July 2000) came to an end, have some groups of ation,customs,the police,the military,etc.).These networks strive to traffickers been able to win their independence from the State, take advantage of their public prerogatives in a way such that they now represented by members of the opposition party.In the fed- "act at the same time as regulators,custodians and revenue hunters, erate states where this institutional and political mutation has and (that) their grip is exercised as well in the field of the illicit and had an impact, the phenomenon seems to have coincided with criminal economy". The seriousness of this situation eventually a rapid increase in the practices of violent regulation of the ille- elicited a strong reaction on the part of the central authority in the gal market and of its relations with the State (assassinations,set- summer of 1998, and brought about the "prohibition of all eco- tlings of accounts,intimidations and execution of threats,as hap- nomic activity among the armed forces, the armed police forces pened for a long time at the national level in Colombia, for ex- and the judicial system". In this case as well, the arrest and convic- ample).There is a clear difference between the powerful Mexican tion of the Deputy Minister of Public Security in charge of border State and the "democratic" situation in Colombia and Brazil, security illustrates the involvement of some of the highest State au- where traffickers have always enjoyed a broad measure of authorities in criminal activities. Yet drug trafficking is only one of (2)The author analyses the specific role of drug traf- tonomy from the State — which they have sought to corrupt many facets in the illegal Chinese economy, alongside gambling, ficking in the global illegal economy of China in Les prospérités du crime (Chapter 2), Editions de l’Aube, from the outside.It is easy to see how the discrepancy,though in- prostitution, moonlighting, smuggling and counterfeiting, whose 1999, published with the support of the UNESCO- herited from history,may fade away in the future as a result of the global development is assessed here by the author in its relations MOST Programme. democratisation process in the Mexican political arena.This dif- with the decentralization and liberalization of the economy(2).

FORMER NEXT 3 Introduction Two Procedures of Corruption ample, seems to have been located at the level of the Federal and Criminalisation Division of Security (DFS) and the Public Ministry (Procuradoria General de la República, PGR), which Luis Astorgas shows were The balance of power between the State and the outlaws in the strategic sites for the "mediation" between political power the corruptive transaction thus differs from one country to the and traffickers from 1947 to 1985.The members of those sensi- other.In Brazil,it seems to favour corrupting traffickers,who tar- tive Mexican administrative bodies were obviously in a better get the representatives of a rather weak State. In Mexico or position to impose the price of their connivance on the traf- China, it tends to benefit the corrupt representatives of States fickers than the dean of a university or the director of a hospi- that are substantially more threatening for the outlaws.In both tal would have been … Conversely, Brazilian, Colombian and cases, those who dominate the balance of power impose the Indian police officers and judges also constitute the prime tar- price of the neutralization of the law. It must be noted that the get for corruptive traffickers (who are usually quite indifferent criminalisation process of activities carried out by State repre- to deans).From this point of view,it is understandable that part sentatives subsequently follows two opposing paths. In Brazil, of Mexican and Brazilian public opinion should be reluctant to some drug traffickers are able to rely on their financial power entrust their country’s national armies —renowned for their in- and their social constituencies to seize positions of authority tegrity — with the mission of fighting drug trafficking, for fear within the State in a lawful manner (as has happened in that these institutions be exposed to the subversive appeal of Colombia,Thailand and India).In Mexico or China,on the other the wealth generated by the traffickers whom they may be hand,officials or elected representatives are the abusers of their called upon to combat. own legal authority, which they use to place criminal activities under their protection and share the proceeds from these activities with the criminals. Alternatively, they can choose to engage directly and at a lesser risk in those activities under the Preliminary conclusions: the Issue of cover of their position (as was the case some time ago at the Clientelism highest level under the military governments of Bolivia, The studies mentioned thus establish a distinction between Pakistan, Peru, etc.). two forms of corruption that epitomize roughly two opposing paths of "State criminalisation", depending on the power of the This phenomenon is unsurprising,in fact,since it is the very authority that the officials or elected representatives refrain from authority of the State that finds itself negotiated and traded in exercising — such renunciation constituting the very object of the last resort by the corrupt individuals through the corruptive the corruptive transaction. Beyond this inevitably sketchy oppo- transaction,and since that authority is undeniably more feared sition, it must be noted that all of these studies have in common in China and in Mexico (or under any dictatorial regime) than in the fact that they raise the question of the political legitimacy of Brazil,Thailand or Colombia.The Chinese practice described by those States that are involved in drug trafficking.Indeed,the drug Guilhem Fabre,whereby delinquents purchase police uniforms money does not solely serve to increase the wealth of private in- (which are sold on the open market) in order to abuse the pre- dividuals (in which case the issue of the relations between out- rogatives of the police, is uncommon in Brazil, where usurping laws and State would be reduced to a simple question of polic- the same function fails to yield similar advantages … For the ing).The outflow of that money also causes a shift in the public same reason, it is scarcely surprising that those institutions perception of legitimate authority in society for the populations which are the most exposed to corruption should be, in every involved. single case, those administrative bodies whose mission it is to enforce the law and which possess the means to achieve that The drug money increases the wealth of traffickers and of end,i.e.,the police,the judiciary and in some cases the military. some of the Mexican State’s representatives,but it can also serve For a long time, the source of the corruptive interconnection to replenish the treasury of a Mexican governor’s federate State, between large-scale trafficking and the Mexican State, for ex- thereby helping to strengthen the legal legitimacy that such a

FORMER NEXT 4 Introduction public figure enjoys in the State and facilitate that public figure’s free-trade ideology and the concomitant demotion of the im- re-election.The drug money increases the wealth of Brazilian traf- age of the State (the only historical institution that has ever had fickers,but it can also benefit small coffee producers when a traf- the authority ideally to promote the public good vis-à-vis the ficker buys their crops at prices that are well above the market expression of private interests) do nothing to curb the greed price.In that case,the money is no longer simply laundered.It can and ambition of traffickers. grant the criminals, who nevertheless remain outlaws, sufficient legitimacy to win a federal election that will sanction their clientelist legitimacy through the additional blessing of the law,while administrative bodies whose task it is, in principle, to suppress them are placed under their personal responsibility. The drug money that is earmarked for the corruption of officials can be allocated to them without causing them to perceive the transaction as a venal procedure aimed at purchasing their connivance. It can be transferred to them in such a way that they will interpret the transaction in fact as the allocation of a benefit that will win them over to the clientelist ideal embodied by the magnanimous trafficker — as though the outlaw’s promises turned out to be more credible and the outlaw’s authority more legitimate than those of the State they are supposed to serve. Finally, illegal wealth can enable some members of the Chinese civil service to preserve the legitimacy of the latter’s internal hierarchy, as well as the legitimacy of the populations’ subordination to its bureaucratic authority.

The social consequences of the outflow of drug money,and more generally of the proceeds from crime,are thus not only of an economic nature.There are eminently political in so far as the devolution or investment of these resources fosters a specific form of legitimacy — one whose principle is thoroughly indifferent to the law or to any institutional statute.This clientelist legitimacy is capable of consolidating, subverting or inducing the collapse of any institution (and remains in this respect a challenge for social science). Anywhere it exists, the outflow of illegal wealth has the potential to create or maintain a-legal poles of legitimacy that are indifferent to the law, regardless of its formal orientation (democracy, single party). In all cases, these clientelist legitimacies impinge on those of the State that they subvert.The decline,if not the collapse,of the State’s credit can coincide with the rise of these subterranean clientelist po- larities,driven by the sole private interest of traffickers and their strategies of neutralization and instrumentalisation of legal institutions that remain indifferent to the public interest and legality. It is worth noting that the contemporary triumph of the

FORMER

5 Introduction Chapter1 gal drug trafficking in each country could explain, at least par- THE FIELD OF DRUG tially, why this very essential communication would be difficult TRAFFICKING or easy to achieve.It would also explain how the generalizations IN MEXICO and labels that the media apply indiscriminately to all these countries obstruct rational understanding of the phenomenon Luis Astorga and serve to feed the Manichean fantasies of those who think in terms of battles between heroes and villains.

Politicians currently heading antidrug policies do so by conviction or because they have to, or because of a combination of both.When they came to power,the prohibitionist policy was already in place and they have rarely been able to change it in any way other than reinforcing it.Some may criticize the policy in private, but ultimately such criticism is not reflected in the general orientation. It is as if such policies and the institutions implementing them had a life of their own and a paradoxical capacity to reproduce and reinforce themselves that is in direct proportion to the failure of their explicit national and international objectives. More than eight decades since this prohibitionist trend Introduction began to prevail worldwide, we should ask ourselves whether that is not precisely its inherent logic. There is no doubt that the modern communication media have been instrumental in spreading drug-related stories from At the beginning of the 20th century, the social use of certain all over the world.The aspects that stand out are usually those drugs —particularly although not exclusively opiates — stopped that concern governments,which include production,trafficking, being a matter of concern simply among certain social groups,as consumption, corruption, crime and money laundering. Less is had been the case with these and other substances in countless said about the historical processes that gave rise to prohibition other periods in history.On this occasion,the new groups had suf- policies in different countries with different experiences. And ficient power to impose their own moral codes and raise them to hardly anything is said about the majority of social agents who the status of law,applicable to everyone.One country,the United have made the illicit trade in illegal drugs their way of life and of States,assumed international leadership in promoting a policy of survival.The often-fanciful news items about leading traffickers prohibition, the multiplier effects of which are even today grow- are exceptions. ing in intensity. Between its beginnings and now, that policy has been reinforced, as has the hegemony of the United States in its The increasingly abundant scientific production concerning design and modifications.The governments of drug-producing the illegal drug field and its connections with the political,social, and transit countries,as well as consumer countries to a lesser ex- economic and cultural fields rarely finds its place in such media. tent,have been left with very little autonomy to introduce signif- It remains an accumulation of knowledge by experts and for ex- icant changes or negotiate with the United States on a more perts in the specific academic field and can only with difficulty equal power basis, when they have expressed such intentions. — a difficulty that varies in degree according to the country — Among heads of State,the same principles operate as those guid- find an echo in political decision-making. It is not easy to estab- ing the government officers who implement the antidrug policy lish bridges between scientific reasoning and political reasoning, in a given country.They are convinced that they are either an im- and even less so in a field that is as old,sensitive,ideology-prone portant part of a far-reaching national and global project,or sub- and polemical as that of drugs.The history of the genesis of ille- ject to a transnational will.

NEXT 6 Chapter 1 While this was not exclusive to the last eight decades,the so- trade.These included the previous existence of raw materials,the cial use of certain psychoactive substances moved from the pri- experience of local growers, different attitudes towards illegal vate domain to become a concern of the State,which controlled plants as consumer goods or goods to be traded between in- and forbade such use. Prejudice, stigma and criminalisation — habitants of producer countries, and different official positions. quickly replacing the eugenic arguments of the earlier period — The latter ranged from prohibitionist attitudes in imitation of the awaited groups that deviated from the newly established norm. United States — although the institutional mechanisms or will to The United States ruled on the international scene,with its vision enforce the law were lacking —, to total indifference to new and experience in antidrug policy serving as a model and inspi- trends that were winning adepts in international forums, which ration for other countries.It placed itself in a position of force so resulted in laissez-faire and laissez-passer situations.Then there as to supervise the action of other States and judge the extent of was another alternative, whereby the birth of the field of illegal their compliance or non-compliance. It reserved the right to in- trading in illicit drugs interacted with the field of political power, tervene in the domestic affairs of these countries in different outside or inside the latter.This would be reflected in pragma- ways;interventions ranged from the symbolic,with stigmatising tism, hypocrisy and institutionalised corruption or in a crusade discourse, to economic sanctions and direct or indirect military that, although ruthless, would be no more effective than other intervention.The United States has the largest number of illegal strategies. drug users in the world, is now a major world producer of marijuana — one of the most sought-after drugs on its own market It is precisely the study of this last point — the birth of a new —,and is number one in the field of money laundering within its social field and the moment when it emerges,along with its spe- frontiers. It is truly odd and perverse, therefore, that this should cial ways of interacting with other fields in a given society — that be the country to have granted itself such authority and to use enables us to understand the major differences between coun- this unblushingly. tries. Such differences are at present glossed over as mere illustrations of a general model that is in fact non-existent.The model According to the particular history of its inhabitants’uses and is implicit in the dominant discourse on illegal drug trafficking, customs regarding psychoactive drugs, each nation has accu- and of course in the media that reproduce it daily. This model mulated experience, which it has sometimes codified into law. would have no major consequences — or at least these would For a long time, different cultures succeeded in creating social be less serious — if only it remained symbolic.However,the prob- control mechanisms that checked any overly negative effects lem is that the dominant policies to "tame the beast" are inspired that might result from use that was excessive or extraneous to by this very model and aim at universality.It is thought that if in- traditional rules. Then a mass market was formed for age-old dividual cases are simply a miniature copy of the overall situation, plants with psychoactive properties,and for their powerful com- the same solution can be applied to each and the sum of results ponents — whether isolated derivatives or chemically produced should consequently tend towards an overall solution.To date — in cultures where there were neither social control mecha- the more or less similar strategies that have been implemented nisms nor traditional use. And this created the conditions for an in the United States’immediate geographic or political sphere of economic activity that acquired greater impetus because of the influence have produced different results, created additional in- prohibitions imposed on such substances. ternal problems and have had no significant impact towards anything remotely resembling an overall solution. Whoever pre- Illegal drugs were commercialised in the same way as the le- scribes and administers the quantity and quality of the medicine gal goods circulating on the international market,the difference seems more interested in keeping the patient dependent upon being that prohibition created additional costs that were re- the doctor than in curing the illness diagnosed. flected in prices. Also, the concentration, expansion and permanence of the greatest demand in just a few countries directed From the moment when commerce in certain drugs was drug flows to faithful destinations.Different reasons caused some banned, information on the subject concentrated in law-en- countries to be more prominent than others in the illegal drug forcement institutions.Information became virtually a monopoly

FORMER NEXT 7 Chapter 1 of the State.Depending on the country,journalism gave a differ- monopolized in the hands of the State party, began to show ent slant to knowledge about the illegal world,although in many signs of losing control over its own mediating institutions.The cases it only served to ensure wider publication of what the gov- latter, like the traffickers’ organizations, were acquiring greater ernment wanted known.The other source of knowledge lay in relative independence from the political power.Also,during this the actual social agents involved in the illegal business,who ob- phase, stronger pressure was brought to bear by the United viously had no desire to reveal the secrets of their world.The uni- States than in former periods.The fourth began with the removal verse, now legally designated as outside the law, took on mate- of the PRI from executive power,the loss of its absolute majority rial form as the police began to interpret the law and to act.This in the Houses and the opposition’s access to the main positions in its turn had the effect of expanding the areas criminalized. A of power.This period is only just beginning to take shape. In all certain moralizing journalism also made its contribution,singling these phases,modifications in the State and by the State effected out and publicly accusing social agents and deviant behaviour in the reorganization of relations between the political field and the field of illegal drugs. The principal sources of information that of illegal drug trafficking.The purpose of this chapter is to available for studying the history of the field of forbidden drugs demonstrate in synthesis some of the most relevant aspects of — or at least of some of the stages and characteristics of its trans- the three major periods mentioned above,and of a fourth that is formations — are the official and press archives.These reflect the currently forming. dominant morality,the interests of factions and political calculation, as well as the descriptive objectivity of people who were convinced that they were acting in accordance with the law in a Period 1914-1947 democratic nation.Direct,exclusive testimonials by criminals are far from constituting a primary source, because of their inacces- The field of trafficking in illicit drugs first emerged in the sibility. Information available on these subjects is over-used by United States as another variety of criminal activity with the pro- the media. Even nowadays, interviews with the principal social hibition of opium in 1914.The same period in Mexican history agents in this field by academic researchers or journalists at- was characterized by political and social convulsions, the de- tempting to obtain an idea of their world from the inside are rare, struction of a former regime and struggles for power.With its bi- not to say non-existent.Within the field,one reason for this is the lateral functioning,the field was building up to a cross-border re- law of silence;such silence is a question of honour,or else recog- ality until the Mexican government, under the new State just nition that a higher power has the capacity to punish in the case emerging from the revolution, decided to legislate against mar- of compromising revelations. Outside the field, there is fear and ijuana in 1920, and the opium poppy in 1926. In the years be- the more or less well-founded perception that knowing more tween the measures taken by the United States and those taken than one should can be dangerous for the health. by Mexico,what was penalized in one country was considered in the other to be just another legitimate commercial activity, de- There are at least three major periods in the history of the il- spite certain earlier, unsuccessful attempts at legal control.The legal drug trafficking field in Mexico that enable us to observe field was born as a reaction to foreign measures, which Mexico more clearly its relations with the political field and its transfor- adopted as its own.However,before the field emerged in Mexico mations. These are 1914-1947, 1947-1985 and 1985-2000. it began to acquire characteristics connected with the political Another period appears to have begun on 2 July 2000.The first field at that time in regions known for their smuggling activities, was characterized by the birth of the field itself,in subordination and these characteristics would persist during prohibitions un- to the political power,and in particular to the figure heading the der the revolutionaries and the creation of the new state. political hierarchy in each of the drug-producing or trafficking northern states.During the second, structural mediations repre- Traffickers of forbidden drugs form a social category that was sented by police forces and the army were created between the created by criminalizing a commercial activity that had formerly political power and traffickers.During the third,the political sys- been legal.The Mexican opium trader of the early 20th century tem that had emerged from the revolution, with political power mainly took his merchandise, produced in Asia or in Northwest

FORMER NEXT 8 Chapter 1 Mexico,across the Californian frontier via the cities of Ensenada, but not with politics,a forbidden area to them.Smuggling illegal Mexicali and Tijuana. Although he was a criminal in the eyes of psychoactive substances became an additional subordinate the United States law,he had no distinctive qualities to differen- component in the field as it emerged as one more illegal busi- tiate him from other traders.Nevertheless,his activity was already ness made possible by the political power. In this issue at least, sufficiently profitable to attract those at the top of the political the history of crime and that of political power cannot be sepa- power hierarchy.The latter had no scruples about taking advan- rated. It is for this reason that recent concerns regarding orga- tage of their rank and of the political and military control in their nized crime must necessarily seek explanations through a his- hands to charge these traders for the right to operate, demand- torical analysis of the organization of crime(2). ing monthly quotas for the right to stay in the trade.They even intervened directly to control the new cross-frontier commercial Another of the characteristics observed at the root of the activity. During the overthrow and hastened demise of the old above example was the role of the United States government regime of Porfirio Diaz,military and political power was concen- and its specialized agencies for investigating and monitoring il- trated in the person of Colonel Esteban Cantú, governor of the legal drug issues worldwide. United States vigilance, which be- territory of Baja California and de facto highest authority, who gan with the Harrison law in 1914, can clearly be seen in the de- imposed his own law. For the government and the laws of the tailed reports prepared that its Treasury and the Department of United States, the opium traders and the governor himself were State officers prepared on anyone who, according to its law, fell traffickers(1). In Mexico, the old State had still not totally disap- into the category of drug trafficker. Reports stated the types of peared, and the new State was in the process of construction. In drugs, their origin and how their trafficking developed. Names addition,relations between the governor and the dominant rev- were given,along with the responsibilities of those investigated. olutionary forces were not particularly cordial. In the opium Information accumulated in this way is still one of the major trade, the governor acted pragmatically and exploited all his weapons used by the United States government when accusing comparative advantages.He took money where he could for his foreign governments or their leaders publicly of inadequate co- government expenses and to pay his troops — and also to in- operation in antidrug efforts.One historical constant is the high- crease his personal fortune.He was not breaking any opium laws lighting of relations between the political world and drug traf- at first, because they did not exist in the early years. Later, he re- ficking.The theme of corrupt authorities is permanent,although morselessly violated the very prohibition that he had decreed.He explanations vary according to the country concerned or the pe- was abusing his power,although he did not see it in this way; he riod. Sometimes it is asserted that the problem is of the "rotten considered it to be just another of his prerogatives. apple" variety, and at others that the governments themselves are at cause. The business was watched over, administered or controlled by the political power, forming a special field in the illegal econ- When the Mexican government banned marijuana and the omy whose most profitable aspects were subject to the goodwill opium poppy in the nineteen-twenties, the trafficker as a figure of the governing class.That first historical experience at the became into legal existence nationally.Thus the new laws did away (1) See General Records of the Department of State, ginning of opium smuggling to the United States marks one of with the double identity of traders in such plants; until then they Record Group 59, 812.114 Narcotics/12-22, United the characteristics of the original relationship between the po- had been criminals for some and legal traders for others. States National Archives II, College Park, Maryland; Joseph Richard Werene,Esteban Cantú y la soberanía litical field and the field of illegal drug trading.This was the sub- Criminalisation created the field,defined its characteristics,deter- mexicana en Baja California,inHistoria Mexicana, ordination of the latter to the former, the confining of traffickers mined what was at stake and imposed the rules to deter anyone N° 117, vol.XXX, July-September 1980 (1), pp.1-32. to their own activity,and the tacit ban on their intervention in the wishing to play at flouting them.Meanwhile,the lawbreakers were (2) A more detailed analysis of the subject is found in: political arena.From the outset, the social division of labour was marking a budding transnational field,where the legal risks were Luis Astorga, "Organized Crime and the Organization clear. Politicians in the governing class took care of politics and doubling, with their personal stamp.The quasi non-existence of of Crime", in John Baily and Roy Godson (editors), "Organized Crime and Democratic Governability: could take advantage of their position to do business — even il- an attractive local market for their illicit goods turned them into Mexico and the U.S-Mexican Borderlands",University of legal business. Exporters of forbidden drugs could only involve export specialists.They were operating a business that they did Pittsburgh Press,2000,pp.58-82. themselves with the different economic stages of the business, not entirely control in either of its stages — at home or abroad.

FORMER NEXT 9 Chapter 1 They were links in a chain and born under the protection of polit- tle differences between political factions of the same party. In ical power.Their success was not dependent on lawbreaking,but one case the President himself had to calm things down. As on the quality and duration of their relations with their "godfa- there was no political opposition party and the legislative and thers",and on their agreement to submit and to hand over a share judicial authorities were at the service of the executive,the po- of their earnings in exchange for protection.He who paid did not litical elite was sure of impunity, since it was judging itself. command,despite the usual understanding of the expression.He who commanded extorted and decided when, how, where and The health authorities were given the responsibility of su- for how long the illegal business could operate.He had the back- pervising compliance with antidrug legislation.This was not sur- ing that came from his dominant position in the field of power, prising in a country where the reasons for prohibition at the out- and from the authority granted him to exercise the monopoly of set were eugenic.In the nineteen-twenties the health authorities legitimate violence. were concerned about the health and improvement of the "race" and the effect that forbidden substances could have on these.In In various states in the north of the country there were cases the nineteen-thirties,there were high-ranking civil servants in the where official investigations and newspaper articles pointed out department of health who thought that addicts were not crimi- the close links between known traffickers and local governors.The nal but sick,and that they needed appropriate treatment in spe- example mentioned earlier of the Governor of Baja California was cialized clinics financed and administered by the State. In addi- no exception; on the contrary, it was the first of a type of relation tion, they proposed that the distribution of illegal drugs should that seems to have been reproduced in different places with sim- be a State monopoly, so as to control quality and prices and re- ilar characteristics. In some cases the central authorities demon- move traffickers from the market(4).At the same time,the number strated concern about the suspicion of such links.Local authorities of so-called anti-narcotics officers in the department of health did not necessarily share this attitude,nor did the past and present was — given the size of the country — symbolic.For example,in illegal activities of people for whom they acted as godfather sur- 1944 there were only two officers in the Anti-narcotics Police — prise them(3). Naturally they did not bother with investigations, which came under on the Department of Public Health — to since laws were not for friends. cover the whole country.They had to ask for help from local police and the army when destroying illegal crops.The policing ori- The same decade of marijuana and opium poppy prohibi- entation of the prohibitionist policy was gaining ground, and tions in Mexico (1920 and 1926) saw the creation of the State from then on the reforming attempts of a few public health offi- party (PNR, 1929).The intention behind its foundation was to cers were overruled and forgotten.The influence of the United contain the breakaway tendencies of the different political and States government through Harry Anslinger, the head of its military factions that had taken part in the revolution, channel newly created and increasingly powerful Federal Bureau of their differences,negotiate such differences peacefully and cre- Narcotics (FBN),was instrumental in this change of direction.And (3) For example, Nazario Ortiz Garza, governor of ate new institutions that would give shape to the post-revolu- the public health institution had its own problems. Its director, Coahuila in the nineteen-thirties,was godfather to the tionary State.The acute patrimonialism of former years had not who was a doctor and a general, said that one problem was his principal opium trader in the region (cf.Confidential disappeared with the revolution; it had simply acquired other officers’salaries,which were so low that he often paid them with memorandum, Department of Public Health, Mexico methods.The most enterprising members of the new political the very drugs that they were confiscating and which,of course, City,16 June 1931,in Archives of Department of Health (ASS),Fondo Salubridad Pública (FSP),Sección Servicio class took advantage of their positions of authority to accumu- they in turn sold to add to their income.He also pointed out that Jurídico (SSJ),box 28,file 6). late fortunes and invest in numerous businesses. Objectively, Mexican traffickers in Ciudad Juárez were beginning to imitate (4) The most important personality to defend these the only barriers against such activity were the authority and United States gangsters by using armed violence against rival measures was Doctor Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, will of the President, a lack of business acumen or a personal groups(5). Director of the Department of Drug Addictions in ethical disposition that drew the line at taking advantage of the the Department of Public Health in the thirties (Cf.Luis Astorga,El siglo de las drogas,Mexico,Espasa- world of possibilities available.Suspicion of governors’involve- World War II as an event was without doubt the most impor- Calpe, pp.84-85). ment in illegal drug trading and accusations against them tant factor in the increased demand for illegal drugs.These drugs (5) Ibid., p.39. never went beyond public scandal and use of the press to set- were needed in enormous quantities and were medically irre-

FORMER NEXT 10 Chapter 1 placeable, both for treating the wounded and responding to Chihuahua, as protector of his brother José, Municipal President other needs inherent to the tensions of war. Production of raw of Ciudad Juárez. One of the candidates to the post of state gov- materials was seen to increase in places where it existed already, ernor had accused the latter of being involved in the opium trade, and began in others. And, as with other wars, the solders kept since he had removed (with bullets) Enrique Fernández Puerta. their user habits when they returned to civilian life in their coun- The latter had formerly controlled the business, and had in his tries.The market had grown and continued to demand new sup- time been protected by Governor Luis León (1929-1930) — who pliers.The business became more attractive and profitable and had him released from the Islas Marias prison — and Roberto the number of people wanting to enter it grew.The field was ex- Fierro (1931-1932). However, such information achieved nothing panding and needed more participants.Those who had senior- like the national scandal created by the Macías Valenzuela case. ity and longevity, and therefore experience, had an advantage over the new arrivals.They knew how to stay in the right place in General Pablo Macías Valenzuela(9) was Minister of War and of their relation with the political power under whose protection the Navy from 1940 to 1942, and governor of Sinaloa from 1945 they had grown. At the same time the illegal drug business was to 1950. During the key year of 1947 various newspapers in the becoming a subject of major interest and fascination in the po- federal capital published articles accusing him of protecting traf- litical field.There was even speculation about a supposed treaty fickers and being head of the opium trade.They even said that between the governments of the United States and Mexico — a he used his own light aeroplanes. Harry Anslinger had asserted document that has never been seen or shown — with a view to months earlier that Mexico was the main producer of the opium increasing opium poppy crops in Mexico and providing the used in the United States and that certain high-level authorities United States with the raw material,opium.Harry Anslinger’s ver- in producing states were involved in the trafficking. Macías’ sion was that Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, a member of the "Lucky" friends maintained that his political enemies were behind the ac- Luciano family,and his mistress Virginia Hill had made an agree- cusations in the national press, and more particularly members ment with Mexican politicians for the funding of opium poppy of the Lázaro Cárdenas group.The latter were also accusing the crops in the Northwest of the country(6).The mutual favours ex- governor of being intellectually responsible for the assassination changed between the United States government and the in 1944 of his predecessor Colonel Rodolfo T.Loaiza,a member of Luciano family during the Second World War with a view to the their group.For the first time since the prohibitions of the twen- landing of allied troops in Sicily are widely known.The coexis- ties, the issue of opium trafficking was being used politically by tence of raisons d’état and the interests of Cosa Nostra in pro- members of the governing elite themselves to discredit their en- moting opium poppy crops in Mexico at that time,the autonomy emies within the same "revolutionary family".The press articles with which organized crime operated in Mexico and its use as a continued at the same pitch during a week of fierce attacks.Then screen by the United States government remain,to this day,mere President Miguel Alemán made a trip to Chihahua and Sinaloa (6) Ibid., pp.82-83. (7) See letter from Dr Rafael Silva,Chief of the Public working hypotheses. and had a private talk with governor Macías, and the situation Health Department,to Carlos Trejo y Lerdo de Tejada, gradually returned to normal.The matter was resolved politically, Governor of the Northern District of Baja California, rather than through police investigations or the presentation of Mexico City, 13 July 1931, in ASS.FSP,SSJ,box 28, file Period 1947-1985 evidence.The governor finished his term of office and was later 8; and also the report by Dr Bernardo Bátiz B., Public nominated to other important posts, including head of Military Health representative in Baja California, to Dr Demetrio López, Head of the Chemical and As a result of investigations carried out by antidrug officers Region 1 and of Military Camp N°1.It was never known whether Pharmaceutics Department in the Department of and Health Department staff,the Mexican government knew that the accusations were founded. The only certainty was that Public Health, Mexicali, B.C., 19 August 1931, in ASS, Nazario Ortiz Garza,governor of Coahuila,was "godfather" to the Sinaloa had become the centre of the nation’s opium trade and FSP,SSJ,box,28,file.8. most important opium trafficker in the region in the thirties. the place of origin and headquarters of the main traffickers, (8) See El Universal Gráfico (evening ed.),16/12/1937; During the same decade it had information on Carlos Trejo y known as gomeros. La Prensa,9/5/1936;El Universal Gráfico (evening ed.), 9,17,23/11/1937; 14,16,27/12/1937; 13,26/1/1938. Lerdo de Tejada, governor of Baja California, as protector of the (7) (9) For more details on the case,see Luis Astorga,op. drug trade .Then during those same years there were newspa- cit.,pp.68-83. per articles singling out General Rodrigo Quevado(8),Governor of

FORMER NEXT 11 Chapter 1 Since the Second World War, the United States government The quality of the relationship between the political field and had placed the drug issue high on the list of its political agenda the field of drug trafficking, which until then had involved the with the West.It was concerned with levels of use among its own governors directly and their inner circle, now changed. In its population.It supposed,and rightly so,that producers were not place, institutional mediations were created between the two going to give up a business that was apparently as profitable as fields.Their functions were to contain,repress and control grow- ever. Its approach from the prohibitionist angle was to try and ers and traffickers,and very probably to administer the business. control the supply,thus shifting its domestic problem to the pro- The latter now had more partners and earnings needed to be ducing countries. It warned the governments of such countries shared differently — downwards and horizontally.If the spell was that they had to act against illegal crops and traffickers.In 1947, not to be broken,and the machine kept running,a solid network during the first civilian government after the revolution,Mexico of accomplices was needed along with the law of silence.There responded by moving responsibility for antidrug policy from the were still no institutional counterweights or independent bod- health authorities to the Office of the Attorney General of the ies to ensure accountability.The State party governed without Republic (PGR). In the same year, while the CIA was being cre- any real worries.The new institutional mediations shifted suspi- ated in the United States and as counterpart to this, the Federal cion of governors and accusations against them to members of Security Department was created (DFS),which was a kind of po- the coercive bodies.The governors had rid themselves of latent litical police under the President which also had powers to in- political pressure,but they obviously did not abandon their eth- tervene in antidrug policy. And then, amidst a great show of ical inclinations or the advantage that their position gave them publicity, it was announced that the army would be involved in to use and abuse power. campaigns to destroy illegal crops.This had been going on since the thirties,if not longer,but without such a fuss in the media.In For all the above decades we have a long list of Mexican traf- the new arrangement, the Attorney General’s office was theo- fickers at all levels,whose notoriety varied according to the sto- retically the highest antidrug authority and the army only acted ries told about them by the authorities and in the press. In the upon its request and under its orders. In practice, the DFS had United States during the forties, significant traffickers included greater influence. Harold Meltzer, whose contact for opium trafficking was the Mexican Consul in Washington,Salvatore Duhart and his associ- The United States Embassy in Mexico sent a report(10) to the ate Max Cossman,alias Max Weber,to whom the murder in 1944 Department of State in Washington upon the creation of the DFS. of Enrique Diarte was attributed. Enrique Diarte had been an- It pointed out that the Senator for Mexico City, Colonel Carlos other heavyweight trafficker operating in Mexicale and Tijuana. (10) See General Records of the Department of State, Serrano — a close friend of President Miguel Alemán, leader of Also, of course, there were "Bugsy" Siegel and his mistress "Report of the Assistant Military Attaché on the the House of Representatives, the originator of the DFS and its Virginia Hill of the Luciano-Lansky group, mentioned earlier(11). National Security Police of Mexico" (confidential, n°4543), Embassy of the United States of America, real chief, although unofficially so — was linked with the drug In none of these cases can the power of the traffickers and their Mexico, DF,4 de septiembre de 1947, Record Group trade. It added that the recently nominated official leaders were organizations be presumed greater than that of the political au- 59,812.105/9-447,United Sattes National Archives II, similarly linked. The United States authorities were concerned thorities. They bribed minor civil servants in exchange for college Park,Maryland. that subjects with such antecedents should be at the head of an greater freedom of movement,but the higher they went in their (11) See Alfred W. McCoy, The politics of heroin. CIA institution with extraordinary powers similar,in their own words, dealings with State representatives, the more clearly appeared complicity in the global drug trade,Chicago,Lawrence Hill Books, 1991; Novedades, 14/5/1962; Harry J. to those of the Gestapo. Other members of the embassy were their subordination. Here they did not bribe; a kind of tax was Anslinger,William F.Tompkins,The traffic in narcotics, more optimistic and were hoping that DFS officers trained by the demanded of them.The power to impose the rules of the game New York, Arno Press, 1981, pp. 152-153; El Diario de FBI in Virginia would follow its example.The cold war pattern fo- and remove them from it at any given moment was not on the Culiacán,1/4/1949; La Voz de Sinaloa,23/11/1951; El cused mainly on persecuting communists, thereby limiting sus- traffickers’side.They were dominant in their own field,but dom- Universal, 18/3/1958. For a more detailed history of picions about the illegal business of DFS employees and con- inated in the broader field of power.The creation of institutional the relationship between Siegel and Virginia Hill and the role of these two in drug trafficking in Mexico, centrating mainly on their efficiency to contain the political op- mediations made it appear as if the political barons had lost in- see: Ed Reid, La Bella y la Mafia, Mexico, Editorial position. terest in the business.In reality,their involvement became more Diana, 1973. opaque and difficult to prove,since investigations reached a halt

FORMER NEXT 12 Chapter 1 once culprits were found at the lower and middle levels of the Iran and Yugoslavia should be legitimate producers if Mexico mediating institutions. In fact, violent confrontations between was not(13).The great difference, of course, was that these coun- traffickers and State representatives were for many years re- tries did not have a frontier with the United States, which was stricted to precisely these levels, as if there was an unwritten the principal consumer market for legal and illegal opiates at pact to limit the scope of aggression. that time.

Traffickers from the country,as most originally were,started In the seventies another war, the Viet Nam war, and the ef- to settle on the outskirts of cities such as Culiacán, the capital fects of the counter-culture in the United States caused a sharp of Sinaloa. Armed clashes between traffickers in such places increase in the demand for illicit psychoactive substances. At were becoming increasingly frequent. Journalists in the nine- that time, marijuana ranked highest among preferences, al- teen-fifties immediately associated this kind of violence with though there was still a demand for opiates.A diversifying and the violence in Chicago during Capone’s reign.The traffickers broadening market opened countless opportunities for rapid were gangsters and Culiacán a Chicago with huarache gang- accumulation of wealth.The Mexican traffickers — and espe- sters (gangsters in sandals)(12). Contemporary categories and cially the Sinaloans, who were the leaders in the field — ex- patterns of perception for alcohol prohibition in the United ploited their comparative advantages to the utmost. The States were applied to designate social agents who would prospects of rapid enrichment had had never been so promis- eventually impose their own classification for some time.The ing,and they were whetting the appetite of an increasing num- name they called themselves was gomeros — literally "rubber ber of people.The market had again grown, but also the num- planters".This came from the work that they did, which was to ber of individuals who wanted to take part in the bonanza.The extract the "rubber" (or juice) from the opium poppy and to Mexican economy, and particularly agriculture, could not ab- market this.The traffickers’violence was very local and was not sorb the existing,constantly increasing labour force.Cultivation indiscriminate.The district where most of them lived was seen of illicit plants kept the peasants in their places of origin and in as the natural territory for crime connected with illegal drugs. addition enabled them to earn a living, increase their income The drug trade had concentrated in the state of Sinaloa.People and improve their standard of living in the short term. Groups from different social and professional backgrounds joined that of traffickers that had already managed to accumulate a great field of illegal commerce for just long enough to set themselves deal of capital with opium trafficking now multiplied their in- up financially so as to invest in legitimate activities; then they come. And as on other occasions, their deep-rooted custom of moved on. Meanwhile others, who had been born in the busi- settling differences with guns increased in direct proportion to ness and whose family livelihood had for generations been il- the number of players in the field. Unlike the old hands in the legal crops, were the true professionals of the trade. The vio- business, who were accustomed to a certain type of relation lence did not go beyond the boundaries of its own ghettos and with the political power and coercive bodies, those who had was not used against people outside the field of trafficking. In just arrived, the social climbers and heirs of the longest estab- addition,the business was relatively open to non-professionals lished,began to show signs of a break — perhaps unconscious who wished and had the courage to try their luck. As a result, — with the traditional relations. It was as if the changes in the conventional society’s attitude towards the business and its market and the characteristics of new generations of traffickers operators was — although evidently not indifferent — more called for new rules of the game. A politician who knew all the tolerant than in other parts of the country that had not experi- tricks of the State party system and had sufficient influence, enced a long history of daily coexistence with these singular both locally and nationally, such as Leopoldo Sánchez Celis, characters.So the publication in a Culiacán newspaper of a pro- Governor of Sinaloa in the sixties, showed the drug traffickers (12) See Luis Astorga,op.cit., p.89. posal to the Mexican government to legalize the cultivation of whose side authority lay on.His enemies said that he protected (13) See Luis Astorga,op.cit., p.90-92. (14) See Manuel Lazcano Ochoa,Una vida en la vida the opium poppy,with a view to creating jobs and wealth,is not the traffickers and allowed them to do business in the state as (14) sinaloense, Los Mochis, Mexico, Talleres Gráficos, surprising. It was also asked that the proposal be submitted to long as they killed each other outside the state . Universidad de Occidente, p.226. the United Nations since there was no reason why India,Turkey,

FORMER NEXT 13 Chapter 1 Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo(15), who headed the most power- While they did not entirely cease operations in their place of ori- ful traffickers’ organization in the country from at least the mid- gin,they moved their headquarters to Jalisco,and in particular to seventies, began his career as a police officer and bodyguard to its capital,Guadalajara,which is one of the three most important the family of Governor Sánchez Celis. It has always been sus- state capitals in economic and demographic terms.Viewed from pected that the governor was the political godfather of the traf- the angle of crops destroyed, the military operation was a suc- ficker, as well as having been best man at his wedding. When cess.From the social viewpoint,however,the result of the military Mexico became a major transit country for South American co- measures was to transplant the problem to other places where caine, Félix Gallardo’s organization was the favoured intermedi- the infrastructure offered greater economic and financial advan- ary(16). As in other decades, the top Sinaloan trafficker was a very tages. It was this situation combined with the beginning of the well known person who did not live in hiding.On the contrary,he rise in the demand for cocaine in the United States market that acted just like any other entrepreneur, since he also had legiti- fuelled the capacities and ambitions of the trafficking organiza- mate businesses and was even a shareholder in a bank headed tions. by an acquaintance — a politician and financier who later became Minister of the Interior. In Jalisco, the traffickers did nothing that they had not already done in Sinaloa in terms of violence,corrupting politicians The governors who followed Sánchez Célis did not have his and police, money laundering and strategies to make sure they ability to impose authority with the necessary force.The violence were noticed.The latter included their particular lifestyle,which in the drug trafficking field escalated and increasingly invaded was reflected in lavish consumer habits, the music they liked, the rest of Sinaloan society,and the State authorities’reaction did their way of dressing and their relations with people in local not satisfy citizens’ expectations. In such an atmosphere, with a high society.A major mistake finally changed the lives of several growing and diversifying business on the one hand,and a seem- of the major traffickers at that time, along with the structure of ingly uncontrollable increase in a particular type of violence on the business itself.The mistake that finally cost them their free- the other, the federal government launched the most spectacu- dom was the kidnap and murder in 1985 of an agent of the lar military antidrug campaign since the beginning of prohibi- United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Enrique tion.Under Operation Condor(17),ten thousand soldiers were sent Camarena,and his Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala(18).The prime sus- into the mountainous triangle formed by the states of Sinaloa, pect was Rafael Caro Quintero, head of one of the groups con- Chihuahua and Durango to destroy illegal crops and capture trolled by Félix Gallardo. Various versions circulated as to the those responsible.The military operation caused increased com- trafficker’s possible reasons for doing such a thing.One of these plaints from human rights upholders who denounced cases of stated that the United States officer had discovered a large mar- torture among prisoners detained by the army.There was an ex- ijuana plantation in Chihuahua belonging to Caro, and that he (15) For more information on his career, see Luis odus from the mountains to the cities. The prisons filled with had informed the Mexican authorities,which had destroyed the Astorga, op.cit., pp.151-166. country people. Production slowed for a while. None of the im- property.Caro,without measuring the consequences,murdered (16) See Luis Astorga,"Cocaine in Mexico:a prelude to portant traffickers were arrested. Most of them moved to the the culprits in revenge for having lost him his property and his ‘los narcos", in Paul Gootenberg (editor), Cocaine. state of Jalisco — a move that would later increase their strength. business. Another version claimed that both Caro and agent Global histories, London, Routledge, 1999, Camarena were in competition for the favours of a young girl in pp.183-191. (17) For further details on this military operation,see During the eighties,the field of trafficking in forbidden drugs Guadalajara’s high society.She was the niece of an important PRI Richard Craig, "Operation Condor.Mexico’s Antidrug was already a structure with oligopolistic tendencies.It was dom- politician who was at that time leader of the PRI in Mexico City Campaign Enters a New Era", in Journal of inated, both quantitatively and qualitatively, by organizations and later governor of Jalisco.The plantation-and-revenge ver- Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, vol.22, headed by Sinaloan traffickers operating in different parts of the sion became the official one. n° 3, August 1980, pp.345-363. nation. Félix Gallardo’s organization was the most powerful (18)The DEA’s information on the case is to be found in Elaine Shannon, "Desperados. Latin Drug Lords, within that structure. At the beginning and for several decades, U.S.A. lawmen and the war America can’t win",New Sinaloa had been the trafficking power centre. After Operation York,Viking, 1988. Condor in the seventies, the major traffickers moved to Jalisco.

FORMER NEXT 14 Chapter 1 Period 1985-2000 house belonging to the chief of public security of Ameca,Jalisco. Four years later, Félix Gallardo was caught in Guadalajara and With the death of its agent in Mexico, the DEA recovered the sent to prison, also in connection with the murder. The main star role that Anslinger’s FBN had once had as the founding in- members of the most important trafficking organization in the stitution and source of ideological inspiration in the United country were now in prison.The immediate result was the de- States antidrug administration.According to the DEA version,af- tachment of various groups that had formed part of the main or- ter Operation Condor drug certain DFS chiefs had been super- ganization to form independent and rival units,which were con- vising trafficking in Mexico; they had organized the traffickers stantly fighting over routes and dominance in the field of illegal who had moved from Sinaloa and helped them to operate with drug trafficking.The organizations that developed at the time of greater efficiency and force from their new base in Jalisco.During Félix Gallardo’s downfall quickly became as or more powerful investigations following the murder of the United States agent, than the original organization, but they were all headed by names of DFS and Federal Judicial Police (PJF) chiefs would arise Sinaloans. in connection with Caro Quintero’s organization.The DEA provided the media with information about links between traffick- The exception to the rule was the rapid rise during one pres- ers, police forces and governing party politicians.The names of idential term of office of a trafficker from Tamaulipas,Juan García the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Defence were Abrego,and of his organization.The powerful PJF chief,Guillermo mentioned.For the first time since the beginning of prohibition, González Calderoni(19),played a significant role in both the down- an agency of the United States government was pointing openly fall of Félix Gallardo and the success of García Abrego, since he to the involvement of members of the highest circle of power in organized the capture of the former and promoted the latter. Mexico. Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United García Abrego was his countryman and they were on intimate States grew very tense as a result of this issue.The Mexican gov- terms.The same chief was at the head of operations to remove ernment decided to do away with the DFS as a result of the from circulation the Herrera de Durango family — who were Camarena case and political pressure from the United States. heroin traffickers — and also Pablo Acosta — who controlled the Nevertheless, most of its officers were accused of nothing; they main crossing-point for cocaine into the United States at Ojinaga simply moved on.They became part of the Federal Judicial Police — in favour of Amado Carillo, another Sinaloan. His importance (PFJ) or some other judicial or state police force.The institutional as middleman between the political authorities and the drug brokerage system lost its main structure, but still had its operat- trade did not end there. He also acted, at the request of Raúl ing agents and its functioning rationale.For reasons that certainly Salinas,brother of the then president Carlos Salinas,as a political had something to do with the local implications of the explana- spy against the PAN in Nuevo León.When the Mexican authori- tions given by the DEA and with diplomatic negotiations,the an- ties tried to capture González Galderoni because of his connec- tidrug agency modified its initial version of the way in which the tions with García Abrego,he fled to the United States and talked drug trade was supposed to have been reorganized. It replaced about certain compromising tasks that he had carried out for the it with a theory to the effect that traffickers had penetrated PRI,and in particular for the President’s brother.He threatened to power structures by bribing civil servants. Suddenly, in this ver- remember more details if the Mexican government insisted on sion, traffickers acquired an independence from the political asking for his extradition.The Mexican authorities did not push power that they had never — from the very beginnings of illegal the matter and González became part of the United States gov- drug trafficking in Mexico — ever had. ernment’s protected witness programme.

The death of agent Camarena gave rise to an international In earlier periods, organizations originating from the state of hunt for the main suspect,who was finally captured in Costa Rica Tamaulipas had not loomed so large in the field of drug traffick- (19) See Luis Astorga, "Drug Trafficking in Mexico: A with his lover, the niece of the PRI leader in Mexico City. Shortly ing as organizations headed by Sinaloans. It seemed as if the First General Assessment",UNESCO-MOST,Discussion afterwards his uncle, Ernesto Fonseca, another major trafficker strategy to reorganize the field was intended to lighten the rela- Paper N° 36, 1998, pp.21-25. connected with the crime, was arrested in Puerto Vallarte, in a tive weight of the Sinaloan oligopoly and move the leadership to

FORMER NEXT 15 Chapter 1 a group from the Northeast.This did not mean,however,the dis- this field and the field of drug trafficking. One of these changes appearance of traffickers from the Northwest, who were longer was the dismantling of the DFS and another the gradual rise of established, had greater experience and were relatively disci- the political opposition to government posts. In 1989 the PAN plined in the face of the new rules of the game. At the end of won its first governorship, specifically in Baja California, the op- Salinas’ six-year term of office, the weakening of his personal erational base of the Arellano Brothers’organization.And for the power and of that of his group was also reflected in the decline first time, in 1997, the PRI lost its majority in the House of of García Abrego.The latter was extradited, or deported — de- Representatives and the post-revolutionary State entered into a pending on the version — to the United States in the second year transitional process.This has involved a gradual dilution of the of President Zedillo’s government in 1996. Since that time, the powers concentrated in the federal executive, and in all proba- Sinaloan oligopoly has never again had to face such major com- bility a lessening of autonomous action on the part of both op- petition. position governments and institutions mediating between the federal power and traffickers,and on the part of traffickers them- It is striking that various major traffickers in the country have selves, of course. Mediations that used to operate at State level, been arrested and imprisoned, rather than being murdered by under the control of PRI governments and in conjunction with their opponents or dying in clashes with the authorities. In such coercive federal bodies,have been transformed in some measure cases, it is not known whether they have broken the law of si- by the new State authorities of the political opposition.This has lence and given details on their links with the political, police or started to reduce the efficiency of the machinery that has military fields.Neither was a wave of specific violence unleashed worked for several decades.Local authorities are in a weak posi- against the representatives of the law when the most well known tion,since have no access to the brokerage system that depends traffickers were captured.What did happen,however,was a fierce on the federal authorities.This creates conditions in which the dispute for the control of routes and territories and carnage former rules of the game may be broken by major heavyweights among traffickers, during which various members of the police or by players in positions of strategic force. Such players include who were in some way connected with them were killed. In the the federal coercive bodies (the PGR and the army),the local po- latest cases, it is the Arellano brothers’ organization that has lice, who are midway between the old allegiances and the new, seemed the most inclined to use violence against the police.This and the traffickers themselves.The immediate result,observed in may have been because officers were playing a double game,or Baja California and in all the other drug-producing or trafficking were connected with investigations that might have harmed the states where the political opposition has taken office, has been traffickers’ interests(20). Even in these examples there seems to an increase in violence connected with drug issues.The PRI al- have been a limit to the position in the hierarchy of the officials leged that the opposition was incompetent to govern.While not murdered, who were chiefs, representatives or under-represen- denying the opposition’s lack of experience in this field, it must tatives of the State,assistant attorneys or federal attorneys.To go be stressed that a totally new situation had arisen,which implied beyond this limit would certainly imply a different scale in the the potential destructuring of one of the local mechanisms for use of violence — both the legitimate violence of the State and mediating between the PRI’s political power and the drug trade. the unlawful violence of the traffickers.There have certainly been When the PRI won back the governorship of Chihuahua, for ex- more deaths in terms of numbers and these have been more fre- ample, the violence associated with drug trafficking did not (20) In April 2000 the lifeless bodies of three FEADs quent.However,the violence is still contained within certain lim- lessen,but concentrated even more in Ciudad Juárez,a city gov- officers were found on the Rumorosa highway,near its, although there is a tendency for these limits to be exceeded erned by the PAN. Tijuana. Officers were investigating the activities of as the old mediating and controlling mechanisms lose their effi- the Arellanos (cf. Jorge Alberto Cornejo and José ciency. There is no doubt that the Mexican government has a serious Galán, Asesinados cerca de Tijuana,tres agentes anti- problem with its main institution responsible for antidrug policy, narcóticos de la PGR, La Jornada, 13/4/2000; Carlos Avilés Allende y Miguel Angel Ortega,Focos rojos en The field of political power in Mexico has undergone impor- the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), and in la FEADS; Hallan muerto a Patiño ("Red lights in the tant changes in recent years that have had repercussions on the particular with the Federal Judicial Police (PJF). On various occa- FEADS;Patiño found dead"),El Financiero,13/4/2000. efficiency of the traditional mechanisms for mediating between sions, Jorge Madrazo, Head of that institution under President

FORMER NEXT 16 Chapter 1 Zedillo, has indicated that "the enemy was at home" and that he As at the beginning of the 20th century in the north of the did not trust his own police. This has for many years been the country (Baja California), at the end of the century in the south opinion of the United States government and is the reason why it another governor,Quintana Roo,was accused of protecting traf- has supported the militarization of the antidrug policy in Mexico, fickers, in this case the Amado Carillo group.The group was ap- as it has in South America.The army as an institution is thought to parently the favourite of the police, politicians and the military. be more sound and reliable and less corrupt than the PGR.In 1995 Information on other groups revealed support from the police there was a closer rapprochement between the United States and and certain military men; they were not as important or as polit- Mexican armies for cooperation in training Mexican soldiers in ical, however, as Carillo’s friends. During his mandate, Mario anti-insurgent and antidrug combat techniques(21). In the same Villanueva, governor of Quintana Roo, was cited several times in year a pilot project was launched to militarize the antidrug com- the press as being implicated in drug issues(25).In the final days of bat in Chihuahua and later members of the military were nomi- his term of office he fled to an unknown destination and the au- nated to the main operational posts created in the national terri- thorities have been searching for him for more than two years.In tory.The strategy soon revealed its weaknesses.A few weeks after a supposedly secret interview(26), Villanueva said that his col- his nomination to the head of the National Antidrug Institute leagues in the PRI elite had betrayed him and that his persecu- (INCD) at the beginning of 1997, General Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo tion had nothing to do with drug trafficking,but with political re- was arrested and accused of protecting Amado Carillo’s organi- venge.He pointed out that the governor was the most powerful zation(22). In response, the General pointed out that the head of person in the state,that he could do a great deal of legal business National Defence knew that he was doing intelligence work, for and therefore had no need of illegal business.However,precisely which he had informers among the traffickers, and added that because he was the most powerful personality in the region,and President Zedillo’s father-in-law had relations with traffickers,and given the historical relations between PRI political power and especially with the Amezcua brothers(23).We are left with unan- drug trafficking,there appear to be no reasons why he should not swered questions.Do the other organizations need protection at have taken advantage of his privileged position to do illegal busi- the same level if they are to operate efficiently? If this is the case, ness — given his ethical inclinations.He is known in the political who might be the other high-level army officers or politicians in- world as "El Chueco" (crooked),partly because he is disfigured by (22) See Luis Astorga, "Drug trafficking …," op.cit., volved? And if this is not the case, how is it that the largest orga- facial paralysis, but also because of his taste for murky business pp.25-27. (23) See Marta Anaya,"¿ Por qué tanta saña… Por qué nization needed this type of protection while other smaller ones deals and his authoritarian and despotic style in politics. me odia tanto?… Preguntaba Gutiérrez Rebollo", did not? Might there perhaps be at least two types of organiza- Villanueva never said that drug trafficking had penetrated state Excélsior, 1/3/97; Andrés Oppenheimer, "Jailed gen- tions:the completely autonomous ones that can look after them- structures. For him it was clear that the only authority above his eral: Mexican elite tied to drug trade", Miami Herald, selves and others that need official protection? The Gutiérrez own was that of the President.If the federal authorities had "dis- 8/7/97;Andrés Oppenheimer,"Is Mexican a con man Rebollo case has often been cited by the Mexican and United covered" the drug affair in his state at the end of his mandate, it or ‘political prisoner’?", Miami Herald, 13/7/97; Gustavo Castillo, Compareció Gutiérrez Rebollo; States governments as an example of corruption used by traf- was due either to the PGR’s incompetence or to a high-level po- descalifica la justicia military sus declaraciones, La fickers to infiltrate State structures. But how can a structure from litical decision,because he had fallen from presidential favour.He Jornada, 19/9/97; Alvaro Delgado y María Scherer, which the drug trafficking field actually emerged be penetrated, said he had done a fair amount to bring money into the coffers Versión de la hija del general preso:Una discussion con when drug trafficking is a politically subordinate part of this same of the PRI, but did not say where the money came from. el secretario de la Defensa llevó a Gutiérrez Rebollo a power structure? Norberto Corello,PAN Senator for Baja California Almoloya , Proceso, n° 1083, 3/8/97. (24) See El Universal, 22/4/2000. and Secretary of the Senate National Defence Committee, once During the PRI’s primary campaign to nominate its candidate (25) See Luis Astorga, "Mexico: recent trends in drug said that the "worst mafia" that operated in Baja California was not for the presidency in the year 2000, Francisco Labastida Ochoa, trafficking", Report prepared for the Third Annual the Arellano brothers’organization,but the PGR,since it controlled Minister of the Interior and one of the candidates, asserted that Conference of MOST/UNDCP project "Economic and trafficking in drugs,illegal immigrants and weapons(24).Just like the another candidate, Roberto Madrazo, governor of Tabasco, had Social Transformations connected with the official theories, the theory of the then opposition raises other among his backers Carlos Hank González and his son Jorge Hank International Drug Problem", Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi,1-5 November 1999,pp.20-21. questions.If the PGR is what it is said to be,then who controls the Rhon.The latter was also coordinator of Madrazo’s campaign in (26) See Isabel Arvide, Una noche en el aviario con institution, what is its role in the field of political power relations, Baja California. Labastida won the internal election.The day be- Mario,in Milenio (weekly),n°127,14/2/2000,pp.42-46. and what is its degree of autonomy in the same field? fore he took the oath as PRI candidate to the Presidency of the

FORMER NEXT 17 Chapter 1 Republic, he publicly rejected the support that Jorge Hank had had been mentioned by United States police and intelligence offered him(27).Almost three weeks later in Toluca,which is in the authorities as connected with drug trafficking and money laun- State of Mexico and Hank clan territory, he declared that he had dering. However, according to articles in the United States not accepted Jorge’s offer because he was involved in the bet- press(33),CIA reports had supposedly accused Labastida himself ting business. But he did not distance himself from the father, of connections with traffickers when he was governor of Carlos Hank(28). Some days earlier, the Ministry of the Interior Sinaloa. And neither in his case nor in that of the Hank family (Segob) had sent a summons to one of Jorge Hank’s betting firms did the United States government support the information to check whether it had the necessary licences to operate three from its agencies. Nor is any other governor known to have betting establishments in Moneterrey. A few days later the mu- been attacked in the way that Labastida says he was. And it is nicipal authorities closed these establishments(29).Sergio Orozco even less heard of for traffickers’organizations to aim their vio- was government director of Segob and part of Labastida’s team lence at the political class, whether State party or opposition. since the latter had been governor of Sinaloa. He had declared And if the Arellanos’ threats had been real, we would have that both Segob and the Secodam (Ministry of Inspection and found ourselves in the presence of a very curious phenomenon Administrative Development) were investigating all the betting — the existence of traffickers with long weapons and short establishments in Mexico with a view to identifying associates memories for revenge.Indeed,if was true that they had already and the origin of the money and preventing money launder- tried it at least once,nothing would stop them from continuing. ing(30). So although the government deputy-minister of Segob, After all, these were individuals whom Amado Carillo himself, Jesús Murillo Karam,stressed that investigations targeted no one according to his lawyer Sergio Aguilar Hernández, called "peo- in particular, the political message was clear. ple who are already mentally damaged.They kill without mercy and for fun"(34). The Arellanos never responded to Labastida’s (27) See Daniel Moreno, Desprecia Labastida apoyo de Hank Rhon, Reforma, 8/11/99. When he was still Minister of the Interior and not yet in the claims with their version, as they did in the case of Cardinal (28) See Ernesto Núñez, Se deslinda Labastida de running for the PRI candidature to the presidency,Labastida had Posadas’ assassination, for which they have been accused and Hank, Reforma, 8/12/99. stated that the Arellano Félix brothers had put a price on his pursued since 1993.They said that this had been a "political as- (29) See David Carrizales, Clausuran tres casas de head in 1993.Jorge Carpizo,who was head of Segob at that time sassination"(35). apuestas de Jorge Hank Rhon en Nuevo León, and had warned him, had suggested that he leave the country. La Jornada, 15/12/99. (30) See Hugo Martínez McNaught, Investigan He went as Ambassador to Portugal. He also stated that during During Amado Carillo’s leadership and after his death there "lavado" en casinos, Reforma, 8/12/99. his term of office as governor of Sinaloa, the Arellano brothers was talk of his organization’s links with the police, with members (31) See Arturo Zárate Vite,Pusieron los narcos precio had made death threats against him(31).On another occasion he of the army and with politicians. This also applied to García a mi cabeza,en 1993:Labastida,El Universal,21/2/98; said that during the same period his car had been shot at twice, Abrego, and especially to his political connections with Raúl Mary Beth Sheridan,PRI Candidate’s Drug Stance Stirs once when his family was with him.He gave no names,however. Salinas, brother of the then president.The Arellanos have been Doubts, Los Angeles Times, 30/4/2000. (32) See Antonio Garzo Morales,No quiero llegar a la Without giving the context, he added that criminals had killed linked with the Hank family.The first two organizations weakened presidencia para que todo siga igual: FLO, Excélsior; his chief attorney,his chief adjutant and the head of Sinaloa’s ju- and lost their influence when their leaders died or were captured. 19/8/99. dicial police(32).The chief attorney was no longer in office when There was strong pressure from the United States government (33) See Luis Astorga, "Mexico: recent…" he was murdered in Mexico City. The chief adjutant died in a and their political backers had already weakened. As for the op.cit., pp.16-18. shoot-out with the "Güero" Palma gang on the outskirts of Arellanos, despite various police and military operations to cap- (34) See Daniel Lizárraga, Con los Arellano ne se ne- gocia, Reforma, 17/4/2000. Culiacán; he had learned, apparently by accident, that the traf- ture them,they always managed to escape.The constant factor is (35) See Jesús Aranda and Ricardo Alemán,Descarta ficker was moving around the city with his escort.Legally,it was the permanent nature of the Hanks’ political strength. However, el funcionario tintes políticos en el asesinato de not his place to give chase to a delinquent whose offences came there are new factors,and these include the United States Federal Posadad ("Civil servant discounts political colouring under federal law. Reserve(36) investigations into the strategies that the Hanks used in assassination of Posadas") to buy the Laredo National Bank. There is also a report by the La Jornada, 14/9/95. (36) See Dolia Estévez, De los ochenta, la relación In addition to his general promises to combat crime and en- National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), created in 1993 under Citibank-Hank ("The eighties and the Citibank-Hank force the rule of law, Labastida indicated the names of individ- the Department of Justice, which stresses that the Hanks are a relationship"), El Financiero, 11/4/2000. uals that he considered to be enemies or undesirable,and who "threat" to the United States government because of their rela-

FORMER NEXT 18 Chapter 1 tions with the Arellano(37).Such investigations could in the not too Brigade to the ranks of the PFP(45). PRD and PAN legislators im- distant future lessen their power and, as a result, shorten the mediately criticized this step.They accused the federal executive longevity and impunity of the Arellanos. of having cheated Congress, since there was no question in the bill of army participation(46).The PFP Regulations were published In November 1998,President Zedillo tabled a bill to create the on 26 April 2000(47).One of its functions is to carry out intelligence Federal Preventive Police (PFP).This project envisaged the dis- work to prevent drug trafficking.Apparently the military person- mantling of the highway police, the police under the Federal nel will not be relieved until 2015, according to estimations by Attorney General and the migration police.A new force would be the head of the PFP.(48) created and would number ten thousand within two years.Jesús Murillo Karam, deputy minister for public security in Segob, If the candidate Labastida were to win the presidential elec- stated that the new police force,under the authority of Segob,i.e. tions,keep his promises to fight crime and did not crossed off his of its Minister Francisco Labastida, did not intend to remove the list the enemies and undesirables that he had already named, Federal Judicial Police (PFJ) from the Office of the Attorney then there would possibly be a scenario similar to that of pre- General of the Republic (PGR). He said that the PFP would have ceding PRI presidencies. Powerful traffickers and politicians or (37) See Dolia Estévez, La familia Hank,bajo la lupa preventive tasks at federal level and the PFJ would be responsi- their close relatives would be imprisoned in order to gain legiti- del FBI y la DEA ("The Hank family under the scrutiny (38) of the FBI and the DEA"), El Financiero, 31/5/99. ble for carrying out investigations .The Senate approved the ini- macy,reinforce the new president’s authority,revive hopes of jus- (38) See El Universal, 18/11/98. tiative in December of the same year with the support of the PRI tice and comply with requests from the United States. If Fox, the (39) See Alejandro Torres Rogelio,Aprueba el Senado and the PAN.The PRD voted against it because it considered that opposition candidate,were to win,there could be a repetition on integrar la Policía Federal Preventiva;en contra,el PRD, it could lead to a totalitarian and repressive state(39).The law was the national scale of what had been observed in PAN-governed El Universal, 12/12/98. passed at the beginning of 1999(40). The PRD representative states.This might involve the gradual disintegration of media- (40) Diario Oficial, 4/1/99. (41) See José Reveles, Una superpolicía esta na- Victorio Montalvo Rojas, President of the Public Safety tions between the political power and drug trafficking, which ciendo, El Financiero, 17/1/99. Commission of the House of Representatives, said that the PFP would result in greater autonomy for the police, the army and (42) See Alonso Urrutia, Agentes del Cisen se inte- was more dangerous than the DFS because the new police force traffickers in respect to the new political power. grarán a la Policía Federal Preventiva, La Jornada, was the first created by Congress as a "political super-force" with 1/4/99. intelligence and political information activities.It would be a kind (43) See Excélsior, 5/7/99. of Mexican-style FBI.Deputy Minister Murillo denied that this was (44) See Alberto Rocha, Excélsior, 6/7/99. The year 2000 (45) See Jesús Aranda,La Sedena apoyará a la Policia the purpose.For Rafael Ruiz Harrel, an expert on crime and pub- Federal Preventiva, La Jornada, 8/7/99; Reforma, lic safety, this was the creation of a kind of National Police Force, On 2 July 2000,Vicente Fox,the PAN candidate,won the pres- 9/7/99. based on the French and Colombian models. The problem, he idential election.The oldest State party in the world was removed (46) See Wilbert Torre, Exige la oposición policía sin said,was that the project would be difficult to carry out in Mexico by vote. Described below are some of the first measures pro- militares, Reforma, 10/7/99. (47) Diario Oficial, 26/4/2000. because, with its federal system, states and towns were au- posed in the area of security and justice by the new president (41) (48) See Hugo Martínez McNaught,"Quedará lista la tonomous and penal codes differed . Shortly afterwards the and his transition team.Drug trafficking was not to be considered PFP in 15 years.-Robledo", Reforma, 19/11/99. Segob authorities announced that members of the National a national security issue,but a public security issue.The antidrug (49) See Jorge Alejandro Medellín,El narco es solo un Security Investigations Centre (Cisen) had joined the PFP(42).Rear combat would be withdrawn from the army.The PGR would be problema policiaco, El Universal, 25 July 2000; Daniel Admiral Wilfrido Robledo Madrid,formerly head of Technical and dismantled and in its place the Fiscalia General de la Nacion Lizárraga, Buscan unificar policía y limpiarla de cor- ruptos, Reforma, 25 July 2000; Pablo César Carillo, Protection Services and with experience in intelligence and op- (Attorney General of the Nation) and Secretaría de Seguridad y Detallan propuesta foxista en seguridad, Reforma,31 erations, was first appointed assistant commissioner of the PFP; Servicios a la Justice (Ministry of Safety and Services to Justice) July 2000; Reuters, "Fox to Pull Mexican Military Out three months later he became head of the new police force(43). would be created. Police forces and intelligence institutions of Drug Fight",31 July 2000;The Associated Press,"Fox And Jorge Tello Peón, formerly Director of Cisen, was appointed would be concentrated in this ministry and the Ministry of the Wants to Overhaul Mexico’s Cops", 31 July 2000; to the deputy minister’s office for security in Segob(44). Interior would be relieved of the police institutions under its au- Mayra Nidia Aguirre,Planea Fox un FBI y dismilitarizar (49) policía,El Universal,1 August 2000;Jesús Aranda,Fox, Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of National Defence thority .It should be recalled that to consider drug trafficking as por desmilitarizar lo cuerpos policiacos,dicen Reyes y (Sedena) and the Segob signed an agreement to transfer, for an a threat to national security was an official order.The National Molina,La Jornada,1 August 2000. unspecified period, 4,899 members of the Military Police’s Third Security Decision Directive signed by President Reagan in 1986

FORMER NEXT 19 Chapter 1 authorized the Defence Department to involve itself in a broad tions, which is similar to the pattern that the United States has range of antidrug activities, especially on the Mexico-United backed in other Latin American countries, won the day. States border. President de la Madrid was the first to adopt Reagan’s argument as his own. President Fox later appointed a military man,General Macedo de la Concha, ex-attorney general of military justice, at the head The discourse of the transition team made a break with the of the PGR.Upon taking office the general declared(54) that he was arguments defended by the United States and the three gov- not going to militarize the PGR,that he would only have military ernments preceding that of President Elect Vicente Fox.The lat- staff who would support his work, and that the most important ter was also opposed to the annual unilateral certification pro- posts would go to civilians and lawyers.Two months later, there gramme. He also intended to transform and reorganize the se- were already 14 generals(55) attached to the PGR. Among these, curity institutions; these had historically been faithful to the General Carlos Fernando was appointed head of CENDRO and President, to the State party and to their own internal power General Carlos Demetrio Gaytán, coordinator of FEADS opera- groups, but not to the country.They had been more party-dom- tions. In addition, lieutenant colonels, colonels, captains and ad- inated and mafialike than institutional.The aims were to improve mirals were appointed to other posts. Through its spokesper- the quality of existing institutions for security and justice,ensure son(56), the president’s office denied that the PGR was being mili- their independence from the ruling executive, ensure the insti- tarized.It pointed out that there had only been replacements of tutionalism of their staff, prevent centrifugal forces and the feu- those who had already been there under the former administra- dalization of power. Another aim was to obtain that the United tion, "and the majority in operational areas". What is certain is States government respect Mexico’s sovereignty in defining its that the militarization of the antidrug campaign and the security own view of antidrug policy. apparatus is continuing and accelerating(57).

The position concerning the withdrawal of the army from the antidrug battle as announced by the representatives of the tran- Concluding remarks sition team of Vicente Fox,President Elect,changed during a private meeting(50) with Barry McCaffrey at the United States There are inherent difficulties in analysing a field that involves (50) Abel Barajas,Piden continuidad en próximos go- biernos, Reforma, 8 August 2000. Embassy in Mexico on 8 August 2000.This was during a journey unlawful,criminal and clandestine activities.It is nevertheless pos- (51) Georgina Saldierna, Carolina Gómez and Ciro that the antidrug "Tsar" had made to attend a meeting of the sible to find meaningful traces in a society — sometimes deeply Pérez,McCaffrey apoya el pedido del presidente electo, High-Level Contact Group (GCAN) created by the governments imprinted and sometimes hardly noticeable — that enable us to La Jornada,8 August 2000. of both countries in 1996.When he arrived in Mexico he said that identify the main social agents intervening in the field and their (52) Carlos Benavides, Claroscuros en la cooperación the withdrawal of the army was for the Mexicans to decide(51).The privileged relations with agents in other fields.Contrary to imme- antinarcóticos,El Financiero,20 August 2000. (53) Daniel Lizárraga, Duda McCaffrey de algunas re- transition team later assured him that the military would not be diate, common sense perceptions, this is how historical research (52) formas,Reforma,8 August 2000. withdrawn in the short term from the antidrug battle .McCaffry reveals that several external and domestic factors were instru- (54) Esperanza Barajas and Abel Barajas, Descarta had pointed out the necessity for the Mexican armed forces in mental in forming the field of illegal drug trafficking in Mexico.The Macedo militarizar a la PGR, Reforma, 10 December the antidrug battle. McCaffrey also declared that the changes in United States government must be mentioned among these fac- 2000. justice and security suggested by Fox and his team would take tors, with its prohibitionist policies and its domestic demand. (55) Abel Barajas,Militariza la PGR Fiscalía antinarco. Controlan officiales radares, retenes y aeronaves, about 15 years to produce concrete results, according to experi- Other factors include the prohibition laws in Mexico,Mexico’s abil- (53) Reforma, 7 February 2001; Abel Barajas, Llegan más ence in the United States . Months before, the head of the ity to supply its neighbour’s needs and the particular characteris- militares a PGR.Suman 14 generals los adscritos a la Federal Preventive Police (PFP), Rear Admiral Wilfrido Robledo, tics of Mexico’s political field that enabled the drug trade to de- dependencia, Reforma, 8 February 2001. had asserted that military presence in the institution would con- velop under its protection and domination.This last aspect con- (56) Mayolo López, Niega presidencia militarización tinue for at least 15 years.The change in the position of the rep- stitutes the fundamental difference with other national situations, en PGR ("Presidency denies militarization in PGR"), Reforma, 7 February 2001. resentatives of the new president demonstrated in just a few with which mechanical comparisons have been attempted under (57) Luis Alegre and Abel Barajas, Monopolizan mil- days the limits of the Mexican government’s antidrug policy.The the influence of police,political and press labelling. itares el combate antinarco,Reforma,18 March 2001. policy to militarize antidrug action and the main security institu-

FORMER NEXT 20 Chapter 1 The post-revolutionary Mexican State was characterized by complexity,it had first to ensure the social credibility of its explicit an executive power that dominated legislative and judicial au- function, which required the political containment of traffickers thorities, a political power monopolized by the State party, a na- and their continued acceptance of subordination. On this de- tional territory controlled by the army and the acute patrimoni- pended a degree of freedom of action in exchange for the punc- alism of the political elite.These created the initial opportunities tual payment of quotas demanded.It was during this period that that prevented the drug trafficking field from emerging outside the system of direct brokerage through the governor came to a the power structures. On the contrary, the field came into being dramatic end, when was publicly exposed for the first time by as a subordinate part of that same structure. It became yet an- members of the same governing elite,intent on settling political other of the businesses available to people in the privileged po- differences.The President of the Republic himself had to inter- sitions of political authority accessible to the "revolutionary fam- vene to resolve the conflict of interests and the use of the drug ily". As a result — unlike gangsters in the United States — the issue as a political weapon between factions of the same State principal individuals mentioned in connection with drug traf- party. ficking in its early stages in Mexico were not from the criminal classes.They were governors and therefore social agents of the For decades the United States government followed an os- political field — not of the traditionally criminal field. And when trich-like policy. It preferred to ignore publicly — although not the names of Mexican traffickers who were considered important in official documents — the levels of corruption and collusion appeared,neither they nor their organizations had a weight that between the political field and the drug field in Mexico and the could in any way compare with the weight of political power. mediation of coercive bodies involved in the antidrug combat. It did this in exchange for efficient cooperation from the coer- The country was developing, the economy had diversified cive bodies against political organizations with communist or and new institutions were being created to deal with an increas- leftwing sympathies. All this came to an end when one of their ingly complex public administration.The United States had reor- antidrug agents was brutally murdered by Mexican trafficking ganized its policy towards the West, and demand for forbidden organizations, in collusion with police and presumably high- drugs in the country was constant and rising.The make-up of the level politicians.This was the beginning of the end of the Federal political elite governing Mexico was changing, and there had Security Department, which was one of the pillars of institu- been qualitative changes both domestically and in relations with tional mediation between the drug trafficking and political other countries.The above provided the background to the struc- fields.The President’s decision to dismantle this body did not do tural changes between the field of drug trafficking and that of away with intervention system; it merely amputated one of its politics. The form of relationship under which governors and most important parts,leaving its limbs free to continue their ac- their innermost circle had protected and controlled traffickers tivities in other key institutions of the system.The immediate ef- changed in its most visible aspects.Institutional mediations were fect of this self-induced blow was a severe breakdown of the created in its place, which would take care of such tasks in ex- general mediation mechanism and a dislocation of tasks that change for a share in the business,loyalty and the law of silence. were also connected with political intelligence.The system was There is no evidence that ethical inclinations differed from those not immediately replaced with one that was different,better,or revealed in earlier decades; the political elite and State party at least equally effective.Meanwhile,the political opposition be- were more powerful;there was no real opposition party and the gan to win key positions that brought them into power in vari- drug business was more profitable than in earlier times.There is ous states of the federation, and battles inside the State party no reason to believe,therefore,that the mediations were created became so fierce that there were actual political assassinations to destroy an increasingly productive gold mine.Nor is there any of prominent members. Changes in leadership, the loss of key reason to believe that the political elite — in a sudden rush of positions and a diminished capacity for efficient political control philanthropy — decided to leave the business entirely in the created opportunities for greater autonomy on the part of both hands of subordinates, asking nothing in exchange. Before the coercive mediating bodies and traffickers’organizations.One of brokerage system began to operate in its full dimension and the most visible results was the more frequent use of violence

FORMER NEXT 21 Chapter 1 inside these fields and between them.Some used violence so as serve. In any case, an upward spiral of violence is guaranteed, to simultaneously maintain their legitimate mediating institu- since the very logic of the repressive antidrug policy inspired by tional position and comply with the law,and others to shake off the United States implies endless war, and is in itself a dead-end the historical subordination and do business without interme- street. diaries.

In recent years,the transformations and increasingly violent upheavals in the old, PRI-dominated Mexican power structure have been exposing some of the mechanisms for brokerage and control that have operated since the beginning of the relation between the fields of drug trafficking and politics.It is as if the roof of the structure were wearing away and allowing us to look inside. As we observe a major part of the support system that has enabled it to function so efficiently, the secrets of its construction are revealed. Although this is nothing new; we have known about the collusion between police and traffickers for many years. And, as in the early decades of the trade, news of governors being accused of protecting traffickers is increasingly frequent. Even families of ex-presidents have been implicated. If we look at this as an isolated present-day phenomenon, it does appear that the traffickers have "infiltrated" the political world. If we look at it from the historical perspective, however, we can see the end of a regime and of a historical, structurally subordinating relationship, and an increased probability that the drug trafficking field will achieve relative independence from the political field.

Now that the ex-opposition party is in office,its new government team will have to take this situation on board and ensure the institutionalism of the armed forces and of the new military- dominated police structure. This will be all the more essential since the demand for drugs is not on the decline,and the United States government does not appear to wish to discard its militarization strategy for combating drugs in the short term.Tensions between the new government and the United States over drugs will surely continue, since the Mexican army does not have a magic wand to control demand in the other country.The armed forces obviously run the risk of having increasing levels of corruption among their ranks and, if worst comes to worst, of serving as the hub for the joining of powerful interests connected with drug trafficking.This would shift the centre of gravity of such interests from the field of the old political structure to the armed forces and to other security institutions in which the military

FORMER

22 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 As Francis Bacon remarked "Truth emerges more easily from DECENTRALISATION, mistakes than from confusion"(3).The problem with corruption is CORRUPTION its complexity, since it is related to social reality, societal images AND CRIMINALISATION: and political usage, and has led to a good many conflicting interpretations and assessments, tending to distort rather than CHINA SEEN FROM clarify the issue.Let us first simplify by defining corruption as the A COMPARATIVE abuse of public office for personal gain in ways that violate for- PERSPECTIVE mal rules(4).The criminal economy differs from corruption in that Guilhem Fabre it is necessarily based on the existence of networks and on the use of the threat of violence.Both are, of course, intertwined because the criminal economy can only develop in a context of systemic corruption and the exercise or threat of violence tends to be the last resort, whenever corruption does not work.The second marked interaction between corruption and crime occurs in the economic sphere: money laundering. It is virtually impossible to determine the proceeds from tax evasion, corruption and organised or non-organised crime,because the money laundering techniques for each are similar.Nonetheless money laundering exerts a significant influence in industrialised countries, but the issue has been mostly neglected by economists on the grounds that it cannot be accurately measured.

(1) Cf. Susan Shirk, "Playing to the provinces: Deng Xiaoping’s political strategy of economic reform", According to most analyses,the decentralisation process has The 1990s: New opportunities Studies in comparative communism,vol.23,1990.On been used to form a base for both political and economic power decentralization from a comparative perspective,cf. for corruption against a background since the era of reforms began in China.Deng Xiaoping played to James Manor, The political economics of decentral- of impunity ization,World Bank, 1999. the provinces to build political support for his economic reforms (2) These views are developed by Sachs, J.and Woo, opposed by powerful sections of the central bureaucracy(1). The enduring nature of corruption and its spread in the 1990s W.T. "Structural factors in the economic reforms of may be linked to the two main factors of its development, de- China, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union", The institutional transition which entails both the progressive fined by us as opportunity and impunity.On one hand, it is clear Economic Policy (18), 1994 p.102-145; Minxin Pei, "Micro foundations of state-socialism and patterns of withdrawal of central planning and the decentralisation of the al- that the dynamics of a transition to the market economy, com- economic transformation",Communist and post-com- location of resources for state monopolies at local, regional or bined with regionalisation and globalisation processes, offered munist studies, vol.29, n° 2, p.131-145; Jean Oi and sectoral level has now been accepted as the main factor of far more opportunities for corruption than were seen in the Andrew Walder,Zouping in transition:the process of re- China’s economic dynamism.Flexibility, both locally and region- 1980s. Foreign trade has quadrupled and annual foreign invest- form in rural north China, Harvard Contemporary ally in China,has certainly been influenced not only by the coun- ment has increased tenfold on average since the 1980s, while China Series,1999;Yves Citoleux,"La longue marche de (5) la transition chinoise", Revue d'études comparatives Est- try’s inheritance of a very incomplete urbanisation and a state- "many investors have been operating in a legal grey zone" .The Ouest,1999,vol.30,n° 2-3,p.303-323. socialist economy, but also by the prevailing local state corpo- adoption of a "socialist market economy" stimulated the rise of (3) Quoted in Thomas Khun, La structure des révolu- ratism, combining state intervention with market-oriented the private sector, the gradual commercialization of the public tions scientifiques, Paris, Champs Flammarion, p.40. growth(2).However, alongside these positive, dynamic aspects of health and education sectors,and the transformation of local and (4) Cf. For this definition and a bibliography of arti- decentralisation there are increased inequalities, corruption, sectoral bureaucracies into managements,all with state encour- cles on corruption in China, see Melanie Manion, "Issues in corruption control in post-Mao China",Issues crime and insecurity at local level, all of them tendencies seri- agement.With the implementation of privatisation policies in a and Studies 34, n° 9, Sept.98, p.2-4. ously affecting everyday life and the perceptions of both rural monopolistic environment,the whole transition process may be (5) Cf.Business Week, 6/12/1999, p.22. and urban Chinese. viewed as it was described in the former Soviet Union by Yuri

NEXT 23 Chapter 2 Affanassiev,namely as the gradual transformation of the nomen- Nor is this problem limited to the state sector. 520,000 rural klatura’s corporatist interests into capital, and as a conversion of collective enterprises,one third of the total,have been sold,taken that nomenklatura’s decision-making power into a power of ap- over,declared bankrupt or transformed into shareholding coop- propriating and swelling state assets(6). erative companies. But the Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Mr Qi Jingfa, has claimed that collective enterprises have been sold to In other words,the scale of corruption tends not to be limited individuals at prices far lower than their real values."While that is to flows (of goods,funds,foreign currency reserves,etc),as it was not wholly true,this has become the current trend",according to the in the 1980s,but has been extended to stocks (not just industrial highly official China Daily(10).In the same vein,the land and real es- assets, as is often stated, but also to land and real estate assets, tate markets are also the object of underhand deals generating worth much more because they are influenced by comparison a hidden income of 20 billion Yuan in 1992, which must have with international prices).While the liberalisation of prices has re- grown with the increased value of real estate assets and the huge stricted de facto the dual pricing system applied to plan and mar- number of new projects in the 1990s.In 1992,only 10 per cent of ket, the transfer of funds into the banking system has been a the land supply was ceded openly against money,while the rest common practice, as has been pointed out by Wang Anpei.The was allocated freely by administrative means, and the central differential between interest rates applied to formal banking government raised only 1 per cent of the amount that it should loans and informal loans for the profitable activities of the non- have received for the cession of public land(11).The Chen Xitong state sector, especially in the "bubble economy", was so great affair is the best example of this uncontrolled situation that has that the state banks began to run a parallel banking business, increased the overall cost of construction by almost 40 per cent lending people’s deposits and pocketing the interest payments. since the beginning of the 1990s(12).The freezing of the real estate Between 1993 and 1996, this misappropriation concerned 8-10 bubble,following the Asia crisis and the slowdown in growth and per cent of all banking loans and generated profits of between domestic demand, has revealed the extent of the speculation, 240.3 and 347.3 billion Yuan (US$28.9 to 41.8 billion)(7).This prac- partly expressed in the bad loans of the banking sector. Back in tice certainly seems to have continued into 1999, as China’s 1996, about a million flats and offices remained unsold, because (6) Cf.Yuri Affanassiev quoted in Guilhem Fabre,"La Auditor has revealed accounting abuses in the banking system they were overpriced(13). nouvelle nouvelle classe :réflexions sur la transition en involving the equivalent of US$400 billion.Two of the four state Chine", Transitions, Université Libre de Bruxelles, vol.35, n°2, 1994. banks overstated their assets by 200 billion Yuan and cooked the The stock markets are another example of the fragility of the (8) (7) Cf.Wang Anpei, Jingji yanjiu, 1998 n°7, p.63. books to the tune of another US$200 billion .The overstatement bubble economy and its links with the underground economy. (8) Cf.Financial Times, 17/12/1999. of their assets could be put down to interventions in the over- Non-existent at the beginning of the 1990s, stock market capi- (9) Cf. Ricky Tung, "The depletion of state assets in valued stock market while the misappropriation is linked to the talization now accounts for US$338 billion, over a third of GDP, mainland China",Issues and Studies,vol.32,n°1,p.3-4 management of the parallel banking business. with 40 million investors. But this spectacular growth, founded (10) Cf.15/06/1998, p.1. (11) Cf.Wang Anpei, Jingji yanjiu, n° 2, 1995. on a mechanical application of the American model without the (12) Cf. Ting Gong, "Forms and characteristics of The existence of such huge misappropriation of funds is, in corresponding regulatory framework,remains very fragile and is China’s corruption in the 1990s: change with continu- other words,closely linked with the bubble economy,for most of tainted with opacity. In 1995 a study published by the China ity",Communist and post-communist studies,1997, these high interest loans were attracted by the high profit mar- Financial Times revealed that 87 per cent of the companies vol.30, n° 3, p.280. gins of the real estate and stock market businesses, at least until quoted in Shanghai and Shenzhen suffered negative returns on (13) Cf. Fan Gang, Tendances de l’économie chinoise, (14) n° 1, 1997. 1996.This is a clear illustration of spontaneous privatisation poli- investments .Three economists — Xiao Zuoji, Liu Hongru and (14) Cf.Jean-François Huchet and Yan Xiangjun,"Les cies, which may be extended to the industrial sector, since the Wu Jinglian — have warned that many local governments have entreprises d’Etat chinoises à la croisée des chemins", yearly depletion of state assets is estimated at around 2 per cent floated poorly performing companies onto the stock market for Tiers-Monde, Paris, n° 147, juillet-septembre 1996, of their total value since 1993(9). In this sense, the growing losses the sole purpose of recapitalisation and,according to some esti- p.618. of the state sector, subsidized to the tune of 10 per cent of GDP, mates concerning the 100 or so companies listed in China,almost (15) Cf. Xinhua, 6/03/1998 in SWB BBC Asia Pacific, (15) 11/03/1998; Business Week,8/11/1999,p.42. are not only due to overstaffing,irresponsible management and all are ailing state enterprises . One financial analyst has said, (16) Cf.Fang Quan,deputy editor of Securities Market hefty social security contributions but also to growing corrup- "Market regulators have contradictory functions.One is to supervise Weekly, quoted in Business Week, 8/11/1999. tion. but the other is to raise money for the government"(16).

FORMER NEXT 24 Chapter 2 According to David Wall "Uncompetitive advantages usually of a bubble economy and social and spatial inequalities are more determine who wins and who loses in China’s futures markets (since) easily accepted. But as soon as high growth disappears and the around three quarters of the participants are consistent losers and pie becomes smaller, newcomers are discouraged by the net- the remaining quarter are consistent winners"(17).China’s stock mar- works of bureaucratic capitalism which tend to enrich,as they do ket is in fact characterised by the strong intervention of large in India, the "wardens" at the expense of both consumers and sums of illegal "hot" money from state units, which may repre- producers(22). sent half of the free-float,or some US$35 billion,according to local brokers in Shanghai and Shenzhen.This "twilight capital", to As a result,the problem of punishment is related to the social use the expression of one foreign observer, from state enter- perception of and reaction towards corruption,regardless of the prises, pension funds, insurance premiums and state bank loans equally complex regulations issue. Some analysts take a highly to securities firms, is gathered for an "off-the-book punt in the regulatory view: property rights should be strictly defined prior stock market"(18). Even though most gamblers lose money, their to the liberalisation process, or otherwise economic players in losses may be offset by state tax breaks. The markets can be China run the risk of "becoming dependant on a private mafia, as viewed as a perverse form of taxation or a transfer of state assets they have in the former Soviet Union"(23).This view tends to under- into private profits(19). Some analysts claims that if the govern- estimate both the technical and political difficulties inherent in ment proposed to do away with these off-the-book transactions, the construction of a rule of law in China.From a technical point which foster insider trading and lead to the overvaluation of the of view, we must stress that it is a very recent process, still to be stock markets, given that Chinese shares are trading at an aver- developed on a scale comparable with Europe’s, and up against age price that is 45 times their income, there could be a devalu- comparable reluctance. After all, despite a solid legal tradition, ation wiping out half of the current capitalisation(20). the European example shows that a plethora of laws and rules may be as inefficient as a process of over-centralisation. One If the opportunities for corruption have grown considerably judge ironically asked recently if Brussels really had to lay down in the 1990s,what about impunity? From a general point of view, the rules for woodpigeon shooting by French farmers in the the question of impunity is related to the systemic dimension of Basque country, whereas far more important matters such as le- corruption.As we have seen previously,transition may be viewed gal cooperation, especially over money laundering, were still reas a passage from the public to the private, not only in the eco- garded as taboo because they affected what remained of na- (24) (17) Cf.David Wall,"Special economic zones in China", nomic sphere but also in the collective ethos, with the upgrad- tional sovereignty . quoted in Hilton Root,"Corruption in China:has it being of individual enrichment as opposed to purely political come systemic?" Asian Survey,vol.XXXVI,n° 8,August power and the ideal of individual sacrifice for the sake of the col- On the technical level, it is particularly laborious to identify 1996, p.746. lective that was promoted in the Maoist period. It is no longer a and track down the important corruption cases since most of (18) Cf. Joe Studwell, "China’s A-bomb", China Economic Quarterly, 1999. time for heroes mobilized in a life-and-death struggle, who "nei- them were the product of financial manipulation by powerful, (19) Cf.Hilton Root, op.cit., p.747. ther need nor possess the capacity to master reality in rational imaginative people before the existing laws were passed. This (20) Cf.Joe Studwell, op.cit.p.43. terms", in the words of Max Weber(21), but an age dominated by delinquency of over-adaptation, as opposed to the delinquency (21) Cf. Sociologie des religions, Gallimard, 1996, the sphere of utility,favouring entrepreneurs but also crooks with of adaptation of organised (or non-organised crime) and to the p.353. a marked political background. delinquency of under-adaptation of social drop-outs(25), is "cre- (22) I have borrowed this definition with regard to India from Hilton Root, op.cit. p.749. ative" in the sense that its protagonists play with the national and (23) Cf.idem, p.750. These considerations by no means rule out the problem of international laws and regulations, such that most offences, if (24) Cf.Jean de Maillard,"L’appel de Genève trois ans punishment but they at least put it into perspective. First of all, they are discovered, are not punished.For example in Europe, or après",in Cahiers des hautes études pour la sécurité in- when we consider the sphere of utility, it is clear that the prob- in its dependencies, there are a good many tax havens. Some of térieure,IHESI,n° 36,Paris,deuxième trimestre 1999. lem of corruption is a question of degree. As long as it does not them, such as the microstate of Liechtenstein, between Austria (25) I have borrowed this useful categorization from Jean de Maillard, Crimes et lois, op.cit, p.29. affect growth, the generator of opportunities for newcomers to and Switzerland, launder money for international crime syndi- (26) Cf.The special report by the German secret ser- join the lucrative markets, its consequences in terms of budget cates;it recycles the profits made by the Colombian and Mexican vice printed in Le Monde, 26/02/2000. deficits, the commercialisation of public services, the formation drug cartels and the Russian mafia(26).

FORMER NEXT 25 Chapter 2 In China, despite the media attention given to some cases to potential denunciations by their subordinates or their clientele. show how determined the authorities are to fight corruption,ex- A genuine fight against corruption would threaten economic emption from prosecution averages about 5 per cent for ordinary growth based on informality, or on "the overlap between public citizens and 43 per cent for cases involving state officials. Nor and private,politics and economics,legal and illegal,legitimate and does prosecution necessarily mean punishment.These double illegitimate". The way corruption is perceived by the common standards in criminal justice,described by Melanie Manion,exert people or by the judicial system does not depend on the gravity a major limit on corruption control(27).But,aside from these tech- of the deeds, but on the consequences of those acts on the liv- nical and social considerations, the problem of corruption re- ing standards of the population or on political stability. Some mains clearly political.In all societies throughout history,no state kinds of behaviour may be "objectively illegal but morally legiti- or power has managed to survive by exercising the monopoly of mate".Thus nepotism may be opposed to the Maoist ideal of sac- violence and taxation without believing or at least pretending rificing the family to the public interest and clientelism as an up- that it incorporated the ideal of public well-being(28). Corruption to-date version of the older practice of political patronage.The is precisely the negation of that ideal,as it opens the way to a cri- fight against corruption is itself viewed in an instrumental man- sis of legitimacy,a moral crisis that must be addressed at the risk ner, as the central authorities try to channel popular discontent of losing power, or put another way the monopoly of violence. with corruption into ways of eliminating rivals,as was the case of But in a monopolistic regime such as the current one in China, Chen Xitong. General Secretary Jiang Zemin is confronted with a dilemma that is neatly summed up by a joke circulating in Peking: "fight cor- In keeping with this vision,corruption is virtually analysed as ruption to save the country,or not to fight it to save the party"(29). a means of regulating the transition process,where power is supposed to "instrumentalise" corruption by "corrupting" everybody from the top to the bottom of the economic sphere of utility and Interpretation of corruption to "instrumentalise" the fight against it, in order to settle scores (27) Cf.Melanie Manion, op.cit. and its political instrumentalisation between the leading factions.This functionalist and culturalist (28) Cf.The paper delivered by the anthropologist point of view is undoubtedly useful for an understanding of the Christian Geffray (IRD) at the UNESCO/Most/Drug Corruption may therefore be preserved as a component of acceptability of corruption.But it has to be considered along with Seminar on Corruption and Crime, Paris, IHEAL, February 2000. stabilisation in response to the desire for profiteering in the state- the economic issues if the dynamics of the phenomenon are to (29) Cf. Jorge Svartzman, AFP,10/09/1997.There is party apparatus, but it must be fought as a component of the be understood.That is not the case in this interpretation, which another joke in the same vein: "If all the members of destabilization of political legitimacy threatening the survival of may be of heuristic value in terms of micro — and "mezzo" — the Communist Party were executed for corruption,in- the regime.Put another way,despite the current political rhetoric, economic development, especially in the case of criminalised nocent people would be killed, but if only one in two the fight against corruption cannot but be limited and exemplary sectors or localities, but certainly not at the macro-economic were executed,some guilty people would escape jus- (30) tice", AFP,12/09/1997. or the result could be collective suicide . Other analysts, com- level, where it is not the fight against corruption but corruption (30) For an interesting presentation of this point of bining the two main contributions to post-War American sociol- itself that can affect economic growth. view,cf.He Wei,Wang Wanzhu,"Zhuanxin qi xun zu- ogy, functionalism and culturalism, try to interpret the accept- jing fubai de lilun shuping" (Presentation of the the- ability and even the legitimacy of corruption and crime at the lo- Even if a certain degree of redistribution is vital for legit- ories of corruption and profiteering during the tran- cal level.This vision,defended by Jean-Louis Rocca(31),recognises imising informal or downright illegal practices,it should not be sition period),Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan,(Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly),1999,Xiaji hao,n° 26,p.149. the systemic nature of corruption in China, but underlines its forgotten that the benefits of corruption comply with the hier- (31) Cf. "La corruption en Chine : une production du functional character in order to overcome a segmented market archical pyramid, in other words that they are highly concen- politique", Mondes en développement, Paris, 1998, and its redistributive function at the local, work-unit level, or trated,as is shown by the concentration of private savings,while Tome 26. Cf.also "Corruption and its shadow: an an- through the traditional networks of relationships.It has become its costs are diluted throughout the whole of society.If we limit thropological view of corruption in China", China de facto a mode of legitimisation: "For officials corruption is the ourselves to the sphere of utility, it is clear that public opinion Quarterly, 1992, p.403-416. (32) Cf.Yves Mény, in La corruption internationale, price they have to pay to gain respect for their power and to main- does not react as long as this dilution of costs seems slight in re- (32) Colloque du Nouvel Observateur, Paris, Ed. tain neo-traditional relations".It is apparently essential for cadres lation to the benefits of economic growth . Corruption is thus Maisonneuve et Larose, 1999, p.73. to redistribute all or some of the gains of corruption to eliminate seen as the inevitable price to pay for the economic dynamism

FORMER NEXT 26 Chapter 2 found in the transition process.But once the costs of corruption tense political rivalry),whereas in Russia corruption has become exceed the benefits,we may expect strong reactions.In a sense, one of the main issues of political rivalry by "transforming a po- the functionalist point of view, provided it is well articulated tentially destabilising situation into a source of political legitimacy" with a sound economic analysis,allows us to understand the ac- and even by justifying the military intervention in Chechnya by ceptability of corruption: between "white" corruption, relating the "emblematic construction of an enemy within, namely the to the informal economy and universally accepted, and "black" Chechen bandits or mafiosi"(34).Here,as has been demonstrated by corruption, involving the direct exchange of power for money Gilles Favarel-Guarrigues,the political exploitation of a real prob- (quanqian jiaoyi),universally condemned(33),there is a whole area lem relating to the inevitable lack of precision of standards for of "grey" corruption involving the indirect exchange of power defining the borderline between licit and illicit economic activi- for money, favouring the bubble economy with the active parties during the transition process has clearly opened the way to ticipation of private households with no political power. The a very popular mafia conspiracy theory, not dissimilar to other stock market is the main vehicle of this phenomenon, and if imaginary references such as the Masonic or Jewish lobbies.This ever it plummets the constant winners of this great game will rhetoric allows all the potential excesses of recentralisation or an be brutally revealed. authoritarian regime to be justified.

The functionalist dimension is often inextricably linked to cul- The political instrumentalisation and exploitation of the cor- turalist interpretations of corruption that tend to confine China ruption issue, however backward-looking and reactionary it to the local dimension, seen as the most practical level of reality might be, demonstrates precisely how central and symbolic an in the country.Although the transition process has allowed for a issue it is in terms of legitimacy and that power cannot avoid ad- restructuring of new forms of traditional domination, taking dressing it. In doing so, it necessarily challenges a good many of shape in the work unit and at local level, through old-boy net- the vested interests created by decentralisation in the name of works and clientelism,we cannot reduce the Chinese tradition to the greater national interest.To understand this point of view,we this dimension alone,or otherwise there would be no party-state. must offer a practical or rather a far-reaching definition of de- Like all societies in history, China has founded the monopoly of centralisation: it is a devolution of economic powers not only to violence and taxation on the collective belief, or a pretension to geographical areas (provinces, prefectures, municipalities and incarnate the ideal of the public good which, in the Confucian counties) but also to sectoral monopolies (such as import and extradition, takes the figure of the upright official or the virtuous port corporations), and also to some central institutions such as emperor embodying the public interest (gong), as opposed to the army, the police, the military police and the judicial system. private interests (si).Like every great tradition,the Chinese one is This situation prevailed throughout the 1990s until the summer conflictual,opposing official and unofficial or,more accurately for of 1998, when the economic activities of the central state insti- (33) Cf. Yang Jisheng, "Quanqian jiaoyi zhe zenmo yang hua gong wei si", (How people exchanging the subject concerning us, local and central. It is precisely this tutions were finally banned. power for money transform the public interest into conflictual nature that has enabled it to survive for centuries, a private one), Jingji cankao bao, 15/04/1997, p.1. avoiding the pitfalls of fossilising centralisation or localist dis- According to the analysis of Jacques Andrieux, who offers (34) Cf. Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, "Le problème crim- memberment.The reformist version of this dynamic is neatly re- numerous examples of the corruption and crime process(35),the inel en Russie",Mouvements, n°6, novembre-décem- flected in the expression "yi fang jiu luan,yi shou jiu si" (meaning, progressive communitarisation of the economy at the local, bre 1999;Cf.By the same author,"Eléments pour une compréhension de l’évolution des délinquances liberalization opens the way to disorder and recentralization to sectoral and institutional levels is responsible for the spread of économiques et financières en Russie",Les Cahiers de death). the phenomenon.As identities and belonging to groups are the la sécurité intérieure,IHESI,n° 36,2ème trimestre 1999 ; only criteria regulating social relations, just as family, religious, "Privatisation et changement politique en Russie so- This dialectic, which also reveals the everlasting conflict be- regionalist or clientelist networks define the borders between viétique et post-soviétique", in Béatrice Hibou, La pri- tween ideal and reality,does not mean that the fight against cor- the social sphere of proximity and the anonymous and abstract vatisation des Etats, Editions Karthala, 1999. (35) Cf.Jacques Andrieux,"Chine :une économie com- ruption is not intrumentalised by leading factions in order to set- sphere of citizenship, the "public good" is merely a disembod- munautarisée, un Etat décomposé", Revue Tiers- tle scores.But this instrumentalisation is necessarily more limited ied, depersonalised object, "an asset to be usurped by anybody, Monde,Tome 37, n° 147, juillet-septembre 1996. by the Leninist atavism of the party-state (except in periods of in- since it cannot be attributed to any discernable individual or legal

FORMER NEXT 27 Chapter 2 entity". New codes of proximity and reciprocity abolish the dis- From corruption to crime: tinction between the public and private spheres,making up the the patterns of drift resulting from de- modern state, and thus contribute to its deliquescence. China centralisation is renewing its ties with its imperial history, from a time when the problem facing the state "was not one of extending its During 1992 the Pingyuan district of south-west Yunnan sovereignty over individuals, but of submitting organically linked was attacked and controlled by mainly Muslim drug producers, communities to its power and making them coexist in one entity, drug traffickers and arms counterfeiters. But a 2000-strong China — which has become a nation only within the last century". armed police force was sent in to restore law and order, an op- In other words, the problem of the communist oligarchy is not eration ending in the surrender of the local godfather and the to build a truly modern state but to maintain its capacity to reg- seizure of 896 kg of heroin and sizeable arms caches(36). Ethnic, ulate the process of corruption and crime led by the decen- religious or clan solidarity at local level is a sine qua non for the tralised communities provided it is economically positive, with development of mafia groups. Central power generally sees it neither excessive laxness towards predation nor bureaucratic as being in its own interest to delegate authority to a local elite rigidity that might kill the golden goose. that implements a traditional form of domination.This elite derives its economic power from the monopoly of licit and illicit This vision has the advantage that it clarifies the rationale be- profiteering and its social legitimacy from the services and in- hind the process of corruption and crime at the decentralised come that it returns to the community or group that it belongs level while introducing a dynamic of regulation (and not neces- to. In Sicily, for instance, the mafia was a means of social pro- sarily of instrumentalisation) at the central level. By insisting on motion and an arbiter of disputes, maintaining law and order, the strength of solidarity at the family,clan,work-unit or local lev- by ruling on crimes in the territories under its control(37). els,without stressing the automatic redistribution of the most of the clandestine profits, which is certainly not the case, it allows The dialectic between central and local authorities is thus deus to understand the legitimacy of corruption and even crime at cisive in the structuring of "criminal legitimacy", insofar as cen- local level, since the solidarity of proximity carried far more tral power unofficially devolves some of its sovereignty to tradi- weight than the abstract notion of "citizenship", seen as a con- tional and generally clientelist elites which perform, alongside crete subjection. the official authorities, the tasks of keeping law and order.This pattern is often relevant in democratic societies,such as Brazil,in This model is however quite static at the central level.The the case of the cocaine traffic in Amazonia(38),but it may reach sys- communist oligarchy seems to be analysed as a monolithic en- temic dimensions in some societies in South East Asia that are in tity, unable to adapt to new situations, while flexibility is re- the throes of democratisation. Carl A.Trocki demonstrated that served for the local level. In reality, the situation is far more the individuals who dominate or have dominated politics at lo- blurred and conflictual.On the one hand,the process of the ap- cal level in Burma,Thailand and the Philippines are all men of vi- propriation and even looting of public assets opens the way to olence,murderers or hired killers,"gangsters of a special kind in- fierce competition between different institutions and profi- volved in drugs, prostitution, gambling or extortion"(39). In this teers, and the problem of corruption, as we have seen in the state of affairs, as demonstrated by Christian Geffray, criminals (36) Cf.Guilhem Fabre,Les prospérités du crime :trafic de stupéfiants,blanchiment et crises financières dans Russian case, may be instrumentalised to an unprecedented may become statesmen. Corruption does not buy officials, who l’après-guerre froide, UNESCO/Ed de l’Aube, 1999, level in the political competition between the various leading in the strict sense would become the slaves of criminal networks, p.46. factions.On the other hand,the central state apparatus cannot but it buys a special favour:"They agree not to perform their duties (37) Cf.Jean de Maillard,Crimes et lois,op.cit.,p.24-26. be completely corrupt and criminalised, or else the monopoly while in office". (38) Cf. Field reports by Christian Geffray (IRD), UN- of violence based on the belief in or pretence of incarnating the ESCO/Most/Drug research project, 1998. (39) Cf. Carl A.Trocki, Editor, Gangsters, Democracy public good would be directly challenged by the local author- China seems a long way off a situation where criminals rise to and the State in South East Asia, Cornell University, ities linked with organised crime. power, but it seems nearer the opposite situation where power, Ithaca, New York,1998, p.10. especially that of coercion,gives access to the profits of crime.In

FORMER NEXT 28 Chapter 2 other words, criminals could not become representatives of the "dictatorship apparatus" are clearly in a win-or-win position. In state, but representatives of the state could become criminals, terms of opportunities, according to the classification of under- just as they have in Mexico(40).In this case,as described by Geffray, ground profits made by He Qinglian,namely corruption profits and criminal networks do not pay for officials not to carry out their criminal profits,the main sources of criminal profits are smuggling duties,but representatives of the state have the means to impose including human smuggling (toudu),drug trafficking,prostitution on criminal networks the price of their doing so. Here we touch (mai ying) and human trafficking (goumai renkou), gambling, and upon the delicate relationship between systemic corruption and counterfeiting including counterfeit money and documents(42).To crime, which must be put in its institutional context. the traditional trilogy of criminal profits found elsewhere, for example in Japan and Thailand, namely prostitution, gambling and Against the general background of the ideological conversion drug trafficking, China adds smuggling, human trafficking and of bureaucracy into nationalism,and its economic conversion into counterfeiting. Although it is by definition difficult to assess the the appropriation and enhancement of public assets, decentrali- value of these underground profits,it seems clear that the criminal sation has not done away with monopolies but increased their economy grew at an unprecedented scale in the 1990s, to the numbers. Dressed as managers, the local authorities, the central point of representing a significant part of the hidden economy. authorities with a monopoly or even certain central institutions like the army, military police, state security services and judiciary The State Security Service estimates the turnover of China’s aim to maximize those economic activities under their tutelage domestic drug trafficking at 30 billion Yuan (or US$3.6 billion)(43), while limiting all forms of rivalry.The best illustration of the for- but international traffic undoubtedly generates the same mation of the fragmented bureaucratic market that results from amount in profits. It is managed industrially by organized crime this dynamic, in the licit sphere, is the competition between the networks,to judge by the growing seizures,which amount on av- Shanghai-made Volkswagen Santana and the Wuhan-made erage to 600 kg of heroin and 4.3 tonnes of marijuana per deal(44). Citroën-Fukang.In an open domestic market,this would take the Over the past few years 80 per cent of the major drug trafficking form of competition in price,quality and after-sale services.But in cases have been linked to organized crime (hei shehui)(45).The China it takes the form of taxation:bringing non locally-made ve- same goes for prostitution: in 1996 the Chinese police arrested (40) On Mexico,cf.Jean Rivelois,Drogue et pouvoirs: hicles into the municipality incurs a licence fee of 80,000 Yuan 420,000 prostitutes and their clients, one tenth of the true total du Mexique aux paradis,Paris,L’Harmattan, 1999; (46) Andres Oppenheimer,Bordering on chaos:guerrillas, (over US$9,000) while Hubei residents with the bad idea of buy- according to police estimates ,and they are very well placed to stockbrokers,politicians and Mexico’s road to prosper- ing a Santana must pay not only a set of fees already abolished by have a view on the subject since,in Guangdong in 1994,all state ity, Boston, Little Brown, 1996; Guilhem Fabre, Les the central authorities but also 70,000 Yuan (over US$8.000) to the security bodies,be they armed police corps or their subordinate prospérités du crime,op.cit. Chapter 5. "fund aimed at extricating enterprises in dire straits from their units, were ordered to "stop operating or possessing shares in var- (41) Cf. Huang Tianxiang, Zhongguo gaige bao, predicament"(41). ious categories of recreational establishments, including saunas, (China’s Reform Journal), Beijing, 23/02/1999 in (47) SWB/BBC/Asia Pacific, 8/01/2000. massage parlours, and barbers’ shops" .The disciplinary inspec- (42) Cf.He Qinglian,op.cit.p.323. In other words, the Chinese transition process has so far bor- torate of the Ministry of State Security took the same step at na- (43) Cf. Renmin gong’an bao, 24/05/1997, in China rowed from the market economy the notion of profit but little tional level, since in some regions "certain entertainment clubs News Analysis, 15/09/1997. else, especially the complementary notion of competition.The and casinos had prospered through their ties with local police",and (44) Cf. Guilhem Fabre, op.cit, p.43 and Xinhua, fact that it actively limits competition suggests that there is a co- their "umbrellas" for or back-door ties with certain convicts were 16/09/98 in SWB BBC Asia Pacific, 18/09/98; China (48) Daily, 18/01/99, p.1. ercive administrative network (tax inspectors, customs officers, hampering the anti-crime campaign . (45) Cf.Di wu ci gaofeng :dengdaï Zhongguo de fanzui police, etc) that is willing to implement this policy to its own ad- wenti (The fifth wave: contemporary China’s crime vantage.It simultaneously acts as regulator,warden and profiteer. This overall climate is extremely favourable to "collusion be- problem), Beijing, Jingri Zhongguo chuban she, tween policemen and bandits",or "cops and robbers" as is found 1997, p.35. This pattern may also apply to the illicit or criminal economy.If on a large scale in Mexico where the bodyguards of big drug traf- (46) Cf.Xinhua, 15/09/1999. (47) Cf. Da gong bao, 26/07/94 in SWB/BBC/Asia we apply it to the profits of crime,following the same determining fickers may sometimes be members of the police.In China,where Pacific, 29/07/94. factors of its development as we did for corruption — namely,op- police equipment and uniforms are on open sale, this takes the (48) Cf.China Daily, 18/10/94. portunity and impunity — the networks of coercion or the old form of "fake policemen" ripping off ordinary citizens, as is re-

FORMER NEXT 29 Chapter 2 peatedly denounced by the media.Surveys by Dalian City’s state fices in various provinces and cities across the country; they security departments have shown that one in every three peo- agreed that the General Bureau against Embezzlement and ple wearing the uniform of a police-officer was posing(49).This Bribery and the Bailiff Unit under the Supreme People’s constant confusion between genuine and fake policemen can Prosecutor should provide their officials with bullet-proof vests(56). even raise doubts about mass murders, such as the one perpe- This reveals the nexus of the relationship between corruption trated in 1993 at Qiandao Lake, a tourist spot in Zhejiang, where and crime.The criminal economy provides private citizens with twenty-four Taiwanese holiday-makers and their eight Chinese various illegal services.It needs corruption to evade punishment crew were robbed, murdered and set on fire. China produced and create its legitimacy but, at the same time, it needs violence three freelance brigands who were supposedly solely responsi- or the threat of violence to reduce rivalry in the illicit market that ble for the atrocity, but Taiwanese intelligence officials claimed it controls or to suppress the threat of punishment. In this way that the party had been robbed by a rogue army unit armed with corruption, or the redistribution of criminal profits, the "promise flame-throwers(50). of a material reward" in Christian Geffray’s words, is the alternative to violence or the "threat of harm" as the indispensable This situation could be explained by the perverse effects of means both of its development and its local "legitimacy". decentralization in the management of law and order; since 1995 municipalities and autonomous regions directly under provincial jurisdiction have been responsible for 70 to 85 per Can peaceful crime be the next stage? cent of local state security and armed militia funding,but there is also the matter of recruitment(51). Following an investigation, When the structure of criminal profits is strictly regulated by the Guangdong State Security department found that over 20 the representatives of the State at all levels enjoying the per cent of new recruits had been previously involved in gang monopoly of violence,the problem of the use of violence to sup- warfare,theft or acts of hooliganism,and that a majority of for- press rivalry in the criminal markets is already settled,as we have merly unemployed young people had joined the force without seen in the legal sphere, and the degree of crime may even going through the normal examination process(52).In response, progress against a background of peaceful social relations pro- since 1997 the "policing of police" to reduce the problem of vided, that is, that economic stability is not threatened. In China lawlessness and to improve the police’s reputation has been im- this is not at all the case in the traditional trilogy of criminal ac- plemented by the Ministry(53) and even led to the resignation of tivities — drug trafficking, gambling and the sex industry in a the State Security Minister, Mr Tao Siju. But it has failed to halt broad sense — but clearly is the case of smuggling and, by ex- the tendencies repeatedly denounced by the Chinese press. tension, counterfeiting. According to Nanfang Ribao,for instance,"certain brothels where (49) Cf.Da gong bao, 4/02/96. women are forced into prostitution are located only a short dis- Smuggling, after all, is by no means limited to China, but (50) Cf.Far Eastern Economic Review, tance from police stations.A busy fake medicine market operating China did develop it to a considerable extent in the 1990s. 9/06/1994, p.23. without a trading licence lies just across the street from the offices Internationally,smuggling may be viewed as the result of the ten- (51) Cf. Directive of the Political Bureau "On adjust- of local industry and commerce department.A factory using mod- sion between the growing opportunities of trade profits and the ing,expanding and reinforcing state security and the ern equipment to manufacture fake cigarettes stands next to a limitations of national regulations. Smuggling is not a criminal armed militia", Zhengming, March 1995, p.18-19. (52) Cf. Zhengming, 1/01/94 p. 26-27 in SWB/ BBC/ municipal government building.Rampant smuggling and sales of activity in the sense that it does not harm individuals,but it may Asia Pacific, 2/02/94. contraband goods take place openly right in front of law enforce- be linked to criminal networks when human beings,drugs,arms (53) Cf. Xinhua, 10/7/1997 in SWB/BBC/Asia Pacific, ment bureaus.Similar examples can be found everywhere"(54). or counterfeit goods are involved.These criminal networks tend 10/07/1997. to rely on the threat or exercise of violence whenever corruption (54) Cf.15/11/1998 in SWB/BBC/Asia Pacific,18/11/1998. As China’s State Security Director has put it bluntly:"Too many proves ineffective. In this sense, smuggling lies both in the grey (55) Cf.Renmin gong’an banyue kan,25/01/1999 p.1 in SWB/BBC/Asia Pacific, 2/04/1999. criminal cases are embarrassing. Moreover, it is too risky to create area of the underground economy, when fake documents are (55) (56) Cf.Zhongguo xinwen she 23/02/96 in SWB/ BBC/ truthful files of criminal cases" .These risks are not to be taken used or when customs officials are involved, and in the criminal Asia Pacific, 28/02/1996. lightly according to the representatives of public prosecutors’of- economy, when human beings or illicit goods are smuggled.

FORMER NEXT 30 Chapter 2 It is precisely this dual character that allowed it to burgeon in figures exceed those obtained from the mainland by a stagger- the 1990 and to involve, directly or indirectly, multinationals. In ing $441 billion.The gap was as high as $85 billion per annum in Canada, for instance, cigarette smuggling became a business the period 1994-1997. During those four years, Hong Kong ex- with a value estimated at US$3.5 billion per annum, after the ports exceeded China’s imports by 700 per cent.Aside from very country’s authorities doubled tobacco taxes in 1991 in an effort low levels of imports involving processing, which is hardly plau- to discourage smoking. The Canadian Government estimates sible, or the large scale under-invoicing of both imports and ex- that 40 per cent of all tobacco products sold in Canada were ports by foreign enterprises in China, this discrepancy is due to smuggled back from the United States in 1993, after being offi- "widespread smuggling from Hong Kong to evade taxes. The re- cially exported there. So far the RJ Reynolds group has been the quired foreign exchange may be obtained through exports that are only tobacco group formally accused, but others, like Philip unrecorded by Beijing but that do appear in the Hong Kong statis- Morris, have been under investigation.Widespread smuggling tics"(61). and the resulting losses of tax revenues eventually forced Ottawa to lower tobacco taxes in early 1994, halving the price in central These links show that the practice of smuggling is inextrica- Canada(57).With regard to indirect forms of involvement by multi- bly linked to FDI (foreign direct investment) operations in China. national corporations,we may quote the example of Albania.Out Apart from FDI, as shown by Ting Gong(62), the decentralisation of a total of 500,000 cars on the roads,60 per cent are Mercedes, process,which has forced local companies to become self-suffi- and about nine in every ten have been stolen in Western Europe, cient, reduce costs and raise profits, has sometimes led strug- a fact acknowledged by the head of the State Statistical Office. gling companies to resort to the smuggling of consumer and Mercedes Benz opened a showroom in Tirana,the Albanian cap- producer goods. Since China has been using tariff rebates to ital, but only 30 new (as opposed to stolen) models have been stimulate exports, and the certificates for tariff rebates give ex- sold. "If I turned away stolen vehicles", said the dealer, "I would be porters access to duty and tax-free imports,it is a common strat- turning away 90 per cent of my business"(58). egy for them to fake the certificates. In some coastal areas this practice may affect up to a quarter of all documents.The indus- To come back to the Chinese case, customs there estimate trialisation of smuggling has created the famous "grey channels" their annual losses due to smuggling at US$15 billion,or over 10 of distribution that distort competition to their benefit.It is very per cent of imports(59). According to a more recent report by the difficult for foreign or local operators in China to ignore them Central Disciplinary Commission to the Political Bureau,between and to stand aside,since their competitors are only paying 5 per 1991 and 1998 there were 4,200 cases of smuggling amounting cent duty while they are charged 30 per cent(63). (57) Cf.Financial Times, 6/01/2000. to US$130 billion, around the same as the previous annual esti- (58) Cf. Harry Maurer, "The Benz is hot in a bandit mate. Chinese diplomatic and trade missions abroad are appar- Before the Asia crisis, these channels, funded mostly by the economy", Business Week, 25/10/1999, p.4. (59) Cf."Guanyu chengzhen jumin geren shouru chaju ently responsible for 1,300 cases,worth US$60 billion.Smuggling under-invoicing of exports,used to reinvest their capital outflows de fenxi he jianyi", (Analysis and advice on the indi- concerns not only cars, but also oil products, machinery, chemi- in China in the shape of "fake foreign investments",so as to ben- vidual income differentiation among urban resi- cals, steel and electricals.In the five years from 1994 to 1998, the efit from the tax exemptions and lower customs duties normally dents), Jingji yanjiu, 1997, n°8, p.7. Foreign Ministry apparently imported 75,300 vehicles tax-free, reserved for joint-ventures. But since 1997 the grey channels (60) Cf.Zhengming, January 2000, p.15-16. equivalent to customs duties worth 19 billion Yuan (US$2.3 bil- have been increasingly used for smuggling South-East Asian, (61) Cf. Nirmal K . Chandra, "FDI and the domestic economy:neo-liberalism in China",The Economic and lion).The main cases of smuggling concern the localities of Beihai Korean and Japanese goods into China, the competitiveness of Political Weekly, New Delhi, November 6-12, 1999, in Guangxi, Shantou and Zhanjiang in Guangdong, Qingdao in which has been boosted by the devaluation of those countries’ p.3205; IMF Directorate of Trade Statistics Yearbook, Shandong and Xiamen in Fujian(60). currencies. According to official sources, in 1997 more than 1998, p.159 and 162. 100,000 automobiles and motorbikes were smuggled into China, (62) Cf. Ting Gong, "Forms and characteristics of These data refer to only to those cases that have been dis- or around a quarter of the total sales of the foreign joint-ventures China’s corruption in the 90s :change with continuity", Communist and Post Communist Economies, vol. 30, covered but do not reflect the overall trends. As Nirmal K. car industry.The extent of smuggling affected entire sectors of 1997, n°3, p.283-284. Chandra has said, there is a huge discrepancy between Chinese the economy such as the car industry — whose prices fell by 20 (63) Cf.Far Eastern Economic Review, 5/12/96, p.63. and Hong Kong sources on the trade between them.Hong Kong per cent,the electronics industry and the oil industry.Smuggling

FORMER NEXT 31 Chapter 2 exacerbated the deflationist tendencies because of a lack of demand and growing inequalities, and gave certain foreign companies using grey channels a competitive edge.

This macro-economic impact of the smuggling networks, based on new opportunities and lasting impunity,gives us some insight into the reasons for the crackdown on business activities among the armed forces, the armed police and the judiciary launched in the summer of 1998, followed by the arrest of China’s Vice-Minister of State Security, Li Jingzhou, who had been in charge of border security, and by the setting up of a 6,000-strong anti-smuggling task-force, dependant on the central government(64). Widespread smuggling and the on-going campaign against it,involving people at the highest level,is the best illustration of the links between decentralisation, corruption and crime.While the functionalist and culturalist interpretations of the phenomenon are certainly useful for an understanding of its import and acceptability there is no doubt that they fail to address its political and ethical dimensions,which are also part and parcel of Chinese culture and tradition.

These dimensions may account for the current recentralisation process,essentially devolving economic powers to the central state apparatus as represented by the army, the state security service, customs and the judiciary. Indeed, this new onslaught against corruption and crime differs from the previous ones in that it entails a recentralisation, an assertion of centralised state sovereignty over the key bodies supposed to represent its authority in conjunction with the state-party system. Since China’s current system offers no opportunities for criminals to become state representatives,in the way that the system does in Brazil,Thailand and India(65), for example, but offers instead opportunities for state representatives to become criminals,as they do in Mexico,it is not surprising that this campaign targets people at the highest level. It does not mean that it will be conducted entirely for the reasons of stability and state survival as we have noted.Whatever the issues behind this dubious fight, the question of corruption and crime, whether or not it is (64) Cf.Guilhem Fabre,"China in the East Asian crisis", politically instrumentalised, will remain central to Chinese soci- Economic and Political Weekly, New Delhi, 6/11/99. ety and political debate.That may even be true in a scenario of (65) Cf.N.K Singh, The politics of crime and corruption: a former Central political transition to a new presidential democratic regime such Bureau of Investigation official speaks, New Delhi, as the one in Taiwan or Mexico, where these eternal problems Harpers Collins India,1999,286 p. have become key political issues.

FORMER

32 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 It was only from the 1980s on that income from cocaine traf- SOCIAL, ECONOMIC ficking began to play a key role in the way regional society de- AND POLITICAL veloped.The first Brazilians to get significantly involved in inter- IMPACTS OF DRUG national trafficking did so at the end of the 1970s, after the Bolivian trafficker Roberto Suarez had set up his laboratories in TRAFFICKING IN THE Beni,the Amazonian Bolivian State that borders on Rondônia,un- STATE OF RONDÔNIA, der General Hugo Banzer's administration. The Bolivians then IN THE BRAZILIAN naturally turned to their Brazilian neighbours for supplies of the AMAZON chemical products that their laboratories needed to make co- Christian Geffray The Brazilian press long treated drug trafficking in a rather un- caine (ether, acetone, kerosene, etc.). All the leading "historic" balanced way. It focused almost exclusively on small retail drug Brazilian traffickers in the region began their activities at that distribution (particularly in Rio de Janeiro), while only rarely ex- time by fraudulently exporting those chemicals to Bolivia,which amining the question of the Brazilian organisation of the whole- were paid for in cocaine that the Brazilians then re-exported for sale trade in drugs before they reach small city dealers.This si- their own benefit.The Amazonian north of Brazil and the Mato lence and inconsistency on the part of the media and politicians Grosso in the south,bordering on Paraguay,through which some as regards the problem persisted from the beginning of major of Bolivia's cocaine output travelled, thus became transit routes trafficking in Brazil in the 1980s until the setting up of a new par- for Brazilian and Bolivian traffickers, as well as for Colombians liamentary commission of inquiry into drug trafficking in 1998. who were seeking to diversify their routes. That attitude was fairly understandable in States like Rondônia, where certain leading newspapers may have been under the in- Local and national cocaine use remained marginal at that fluence of local traffickers, and where the drug trade provided a time.The cocaine that was available in Rondônia was chiefly des- living, directly or indirectly, for a great many people. It was more tined for export, and the effects of the trafficking were limited puzzling at Federal level, where the media were roused out of to specific border regions,in Guajara Mirim and Costa Marquès, their indifference, and then only intermittently, by a few sensa- in the capital Porto Velho, and along the border rivers Guaporé, tional court cases, which were not seriously followed up by the Mamoré and Madeira, whose banks had gradually been aban- newspapers and had no political repercussions. My sociological doned by the population.Some rubber tappers were left to their investigations were the first to be carried out on the subject in own devices by their former employers, who had gone over to the region of the border with Bolivia,more than 15 years after the drug trafficking, while others received gifts from the traffickers beginning of the "cocaine cycle" in Brazilian Amazonia(1). in return for their silence and complicity.They soon left the river to try their luck in towns or, in their turn, as traffickers. Of all the Up until the 1960s, the dense forests of Rondônia were in- Brazilians who introduced drug trafficking into the region and habited by a few Amerindian groups and caboclos, who lived paved the way for later generations, two men played a particu- alongside rivers,and whose employers (rubber merchants) lived larly important role: Nereu Machado de Lima in Guajara Mirim in towns in the north and west of the State, which could be (who was tried and sentenced) and Marcilon Braga de Carvalho (1) Research was initially carried out within the reached by river or by air. First Porto Velho, the capital, then in Porto Velho (who was tried and acquitted). framework of an IRD-CNPq agreement with the Museu P.E Goeldi de Belém,which was supported by Guajara Mirim were opened up in the 1970s by the construction the MOST-UNESCO programme from 1997 on.I car- of a highway,the BR 364,which attracted hundreds of thousands Machado de Lima, who came from a very poor family of mi- ried out investigations in the Mato Grosso in of colonists into the area;the region then became the scene of a grants, managed within a few years to become the patron of a October and November 1995,and in Rondônia from classic American population settlement, which, despite its rival- large and very ostentatious populist movement in Guajara Mirim. April to August 1996 and in July 1997.The investi- ries and land disputes, gave the most resourceful and coura- He fell foul of the discreet strategies — which were secret but dis- gations were supported at Federal level by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (Procuradoria geous colonists, as well as less scrupulous adventurers who had tinctly more effective and durable than his own — of traffickers Geral da República), the Federal Police and the come to try their luck on the "frontier", an opportunity for ex- who were the heirs of the local old merchant oligarchy. His local Federal Narcotics Council. traordinary social and financial advancement. little "empire" often hit the regional and Federal headlines, but

NEXT 33 Chapter 3 disintegrated after his death in 1986.Marcilon Braga left a much Garimpo (gold-seeking), the growth more lasting criminal heritage in the State. Himself a pilot, and of the Brazilian domestic market, owner of a flying taxi company in Porto Velho, he could draw on and barter. a fleet of aircraft and on business contacts from one end to the other of the secret trading network, from suppliers of chemicals Garimpo reached its peak on the Rio Mamoré towards the in Sao Paulo (Shell,Rhôdia-Rhône Poulenc) to Bolivian producers middle of the decade and ended officially in 1991, following a in San Ramon, Magdalena, Riberalta,Trinidad and Santa Ana (in- Federal decision which had to be enforced with the help of river cluding Roberto Suarez) and Colombians in Leticia and Medellin police.When it was at its height,there were believed to be 6,000 (including Pablo Emilio Escobar),who supplied the cocaine Braga balsas (rafts equipped with pumps to suck up the alluvial de- exported for his own benefit to the United States via Venezuela posits on the bed of the river and process them on the surface) and the Caribbean. spaced out along some 400km of river between Vila Murteira, near Guajara Mirim, and Porto Velho. For six years, between Unlike Machado de Lima,Braga was on the best of terms with 10,000 and 20,000 people camped on river banks, which were many high-ranking members of the State administration and of otherwise generally uninhabitated; 5,000 - 6,000 of them Porto Velho's town council: his main trafficking partner was the worked on the Rio Mamoré,a few hundred metres from the op- Governor's pilot; a Federal deputy (Isaac Newton, who was tried posite bank of he river, where Bolivian cocaine-refining labora- and sentenced) helped him to prospect the precursor market in tories were located.In other words,thousands of often penniless Sao Paulo and the user market in Europe,to invest his capital and Brazilian gold prospectors,isolated in the forest and abandoned to organise the transit of his drugs through Central America,etc. by society, and hundreds of Bolivian cocaine producers and His relations with the elites were so excellent that, when he was dealers faced each other on either side of the river. charged in 1985 (following a Federal police operation,Operaçao Excentric), members of the State assembly signed a pronuncia- It was notorious that the divers using their pumps on the river mento protesting publicly against police violence and collectively bed were subjected to very severe physical and mental con- vouched for the trafficker's honourable character. Braga's trial straints, and that they used to smoke the base paste (with to- ended with his being acquitted in 1987. He further stepped up bacco or maconha) as a way of relieving the tension of working his activities until his accidental death in 1989.In all,he did more under water for several hours under totally inadequate safety than anyone else to make trafficking a fact of life in Rondônia.He conditions ("On some days, I would see up to three dead bodies pioneered the routes and networks of national and international float past Porto Velho on the current," said a garimpeiro trade secret contacts that the following generation exploited and di- union official). The garimpeiro population used a lot of cocaine, versified. and had a very simple way of getting hold of it:they would cross the river,since Bolivian distributors had fitted out "bocas de fuma" Braga refrained from seeking political office in the State,but, on the river bank,with access at night via canals that were some- as we shall see, some of those who succeeded him in his line of times marked out with beacons. But the market was also organ- business were more forthcoming.Some major traffickers set out ised on the spot,on placers,with cocaine supplied by many small to get elected at the end of the 1980s,and that new strategy co- dealers from the region or,in some cases,garimpeiros themselves, incided with an abrupt change in cocaine trading in the region who got their supplies from Guajara Mirim,Ribeiralta and various and in Brazil as a whole.The present chapter covers events that other Bolivian towns on the left bank of the Rio Mamoré. occurred in the wake of three simultaneous processes towards the mid-1980s:a) the gold rush of Rio Madeira;b) the appearance That marked the beginning of the mass use of cocaine base of a commercial outlet for Bolivian base paste and cocaine in paste in the State.The garimpeiros accounted for several thousand Brazil itself — in other words, the emergence of a national mar- users, both regular and occasional, many of whom continued ket; c) the demonetarisation of access to cocaine from Bolivian smoking once they had decided to leave the garimpo and settle producers. in Porto Velho or some other town.They then played a far from

FORMER NEXT 34 Chapter 3 negligible role in the setting up of the first networks that supplied that kind were easy to establish among garimpeiros, a profes- the urban population of the region. Cocaine use began to inter- sion noted for its solidarity.These "true garimpeiros" were prob- est the poorer strata of the population,and some of the most de- ably reluctant to take on the competition of big local traffickers prived inhabitants of working-class areas quickly saw that small- on their own ground, the international market, but there was scale urban dealing was a way they could make money.The figure free access to the domestic Brazilian market. So they focused of the urban trafficker began to take shape in Porto Velho at that on that market,and helped it to take shape and to expand.One time.Other former garimpeiros managed to invest their earnings may assume that the garimpo had become one of the centres of and also to go over into legal and respectable professions that the growth of cocaine trafficking at local and national level,be- played a strategic role in the operation of this new local market. fore it even disappeared. It was certainly not the cause of that Many of them became taxi drivers, for example: with the vehicle growth, but it contributed to it by speeding up the formation they used for their work,they could traffic on their own behalf or and diversification of the networks supplying local and national on behalf of someone else;but they could also be content merely cocaine users. Soon, every stratum of the population was in- to provide a kind of covert public relations service.Taxi drivers of- volved in both trafficking and use. ten managed to make themselves indispensable in the tricky process of establishing contact between illegal sellers and buyers.In Lastly,it is worth noting that,in addition to drug use and traf- this way they supported small and medium-sized local trafficking ficking, the garimpo fulfilled yet another role in the structure of by pointing local buyers in the right direction, but they could the cocaine trade at State level. Most traffickers of any impor- equally well guide buyers from other States in Brazil. And lastly tance would buy a balsa (or several), which they did not bother they could sell their services as transporters(2). to put into serious use. They would buy balsas near their production plant from "true garimpeiros" at a higher price than that But in between the fledgling local market in the towns of practised by traders or buyers duly licensed by the State. This Rondônia and the international market that was still inaccessible suited the "true garimpeiros", while the traffickers would quite to most garimpeiros, there was also a third market: the national legally sell the gold they had just bought with their narcocapital, market.Somegarimpeiros had not waited for gold prospecting to declaring it to be the product of their own balsas.Such practices be banned before realising that the cocaine trade was much more were very common, and in the cases with which I am familiar all lucrative,and physically less dangerous,than the extraction of gold major traffickers at that time owned at least one balsa, which specks from the river bed.A new population of small and medium- they used to legalise part of their illegal income. sized traffickers from those areas helped at that time to set up a multitude of small networks conveying cocaine throughout the Bolivian sellers managed to adapt themselves to this change country and supplying the domestic market that was in the pro- in the structure of the Brazilian market.They may even have an- cess of formation. ticipated and encouraged it.They took gold from the garimpeiros in exchange for their cocaine,but they would also agree to barter In addition to these phenomena,it is important to take into any kind of stolen goods as long as they could sell them at a account the amount of Brazilian-extracted gold that was smug- profit on the Bolivian market.Yayo Rodriguez, for example, one gled out of the country by "true garimpeiros" (as they liked to of the client-cum-suppliers of Braga de Carvalho in San Ramon, (2)Teams of taxi drivers,in radio communication with call themselves). While it was profitable to sell one's gold to became a leading receiver of stolen goods at that time. It was each other, and often organised by former gold Brazilian traffickers, it was, quite logically, even more profitable said that "his fazenda looked increasingly like a huge car park";he prospectors, used to ply the road between Guajara to exchange directly one's gold for the cocaine on offer on the put vehicles there that had been stolen in Brazil and passed on Mirim and Porto Velho from the end of the 1980s on. other bank of the river, as long as one knew of a "canal". to him in exchange for drugs.Thefts of cars and lorries began to They provided a major road link for cocaine between Entering,and even setting up,such a "canal" was hardly a prob- become increasingly common on the BR 364 and in all the towns. the Bolivian border and the State capital.One of the teams was based in Guajara Mirim, but others came lem, since the garimpeiros maintained their contact with But,as we shall see later on,there were also thefts of aircraft and from Porto Velho. A Guajara Mirim town councillor Brazilian traffickers who bought their gold and with Bolivian cattle; and cassiterite, rice and coffee, among other things, were was involved in one such case (as owner of the drugs). sellers on the other side of the river.And in any case contacts of smuggled out of the country.

FORMER NEXT 35 Chapter 3 The generation of major traffickers who came on the scene and Cacoal are well known in the State for being factories that reg- towards the middle of the decade were sustained by the emer- ularise (esquentar) the papers of stolen vehicles", a Federal police- gence of a mass market within Brazil,and they too adjusted with- man wrote in 1991(5). out too many scruples to changes in the conditions of access to cocaine.Several of them,among the more powerful,maintained links with teams of thieves and receivers, as a way of acquiring The economic and social effects the goods they needed to exchange in Bolivia (in some cases, of money laundering they directly recruited the thieves so they could control them).In Cacoal, for example, the Rabelo brothers were among the first The cocaine market centred on a number of illegal activities people to plan and organise the theft of vehicles destined to be to which it offered a profitable outlet through the exchange of exchanged in Bolivia. As far back as 1987, Abdiel Rabelo organ- stolen goods (vehicles, aircraft, farm machinery, electronic ised thefts on the BR 364 and throughout the region(3),and called equipment, cattle etc.) or goods illegally smuggled out of the upon the services of various representatives of the regional ve- country, whether farmed (rice, cereals, coffee) or mined (gold, hicle market and garages owners,who took charge of stolen ve- cassiterite).The garimpeiros's legal but untaxed output (gold), hicles,changed their registration plates,restored them,removed and the illegal output of certain logging companies (ma- the serial numbers on their engines and on vehicles etc.Cars,lor- hogany) could also be sold profitably in this way. In the latter ries,vans and caretas (the tractor units of trailer trucks) were then case, traffickers who took over a legally registered madeireira sent on to a warehouse in Rolim de Moura,where they waited to company (or madeireiros who became traffickers) used part of be delivered to Bolivia via Costa Marquès. their income from drugs to buy precious wood illegally extracted by their colleagues,known as "picapau",who felled,cut But the Rabelos were not the only people operating in the up and secretly transported the timber at night into no-go State. At that time, groups of thieves were reported in all the Indian Areas.They then sold the timber through their company, towns along the BR 364, from Ji Parana and Vilhena to Jarù and thus carrying out a money laundering operation similar,in prin- Ariquemès.The dynamics of the simultaneous increase in thefts ciple, to that resulting from the purchase of balsas on the in all the towns soon resulted in each of these groups threaten- garimpo. ing drivers in neighbouring towns,rather than those in the town where they had their base and their networks of known and re- All these practices enabled drug money to be laundered by spected receivers/disguisers(4).Rabelo's thieves plagued Vilhena, boosting income from a wide range of illegal activities, from Ji Parana and Ariquemès, for example, rather than Cacoal, while theft and tax evasion to smuggling and the plundering of those based in Ji Parana came and cleaned up in Cacoal.These Federal coffers. Some such practices made it possible to regu- practices took on such proportions in the towns on the BR 364 larise simultaneously the sources of cocaine trafficking income that accomplices needed to be found in the administration, and and that arising from other illegal activities.The connection be- in particular in the Ciretrans,municipal departments in charge of tween the cocaine trade and other criminal activities was a regularising vehicles (registration, issuing of legal papers, tax strong one. It greatly stimulated all the sectors of illegal activ- discs). It was not merely a question of buying the neutrality and ity which it enhanced, but its effect on the legal economy re- silence of officials. Staff needed to be active accomplices of the mained limited when dirty money was not directly invested in traffickers/thieves and put the Ciretrans into operational service it. On the other hand, when traffickers moved into the legal so they could legally forge the identity of the stolen vehicles (ve- economy the effects could be far-reaching, since their excep- (3) See above-mentioned report on groups of hicles with legal papers, even if they were forged, could be tional financial clout enabled them to undermine the competi- thieves in Mato Grosso. bartered at a much higher price in Bolivia than the rest). During tion and conquer otherwise inaccessible markets.They could (4) Interview with the civilian police in Cacoal, August 1996.). the second half of the 1980s and afterwards, control of munici- force competitors who could not keep pace with prices that (5)The Ciretran in Rolim de Moura is also often men- pal Ciretrans seems to have become an important strategic chal- were artificially bolstered by drug money to withdraw from the tioned (interview, Porto Velho). lenge for traffickers: "The Ciretrans of Ji Parana, Presidente Medici market, or else maintain their position by entering the illegal

FORMER NEXT 36 Chapter 3 economy in turn or joining the clientele of rival traffickers. It This business operation was hardly profitable, and probably should be noted that businesses might find themselves in dif- made a loss during the first few years. But Jabes Rabelo had the ficulty irrespective of the injection of illegal capital into their financial resources to support that loss, and it was probably not sector of activity, and resort to the services of traffickers to in- difficult for him,in the circumstances,to conquer the market and vest their money in one or several purchases of cocaine,merely oust his competitors within a few years. In any case, by 1991 in order to earn interest from their advance (which could be al- Machina Rio Doce had become the main cerealista company in most 100%) once the transaction was over, without getting di- Cacoal.Some independent traders still complained about unfair rectly involved at any time.They could thus put their cash flow competition from Jabes Rabelo(7).But others had already been ru- back on a sound footing and,once again artificially,sustain their ined, or bought up by him in the name of a third party. Many market position.Such virtually risk-free practices were common seemed simply to sell to Rabelo himself the coffee they bought in all the towns along the BR 364.They also involved members from settlement areas for a good price (imposed by competition of the middle classes in Porto Velho, who saw them as a way of from Rabelo), with the result that increasing amounts of coffee getting out of temporary financial difficulties, or of making produced in the State of Rondônia were gradually bought up by some easy money. It was not unknown for these practices to Rabelo, directly or indirectly. modify the structure of the population making up the financial elite and to give more power to businessmen with access to It was "from Cacoal that the great majority of tax declarations drug money.They could also undermine and even marginalise concerning the buying and selling of coffee in the State now em- and gradually eliminate company bosses who abided by the anate"(8).The municipality was not a big producer of coffee com- law in their sector, by ruining them or causing them to with- pared with other neighbouring municipalities, which produced draw from the market — or else to get involved directly or in- more. There are several complementary explanations for this directly in trafficking.There is evidence of this phenomenon in phenomenon: a) the increase in the trading area of companies several very localised sectors of activity (I have described its ef- belonging to Jabes Rabelo himself, or of those in Cacoal which fects elsewhere, in civil engineering and the pottery trade in he had bought up through front companies; b) the increase in Guajara Mirim (note. Activity Report N° 5). But here I shall exam- the trading area of independent Cacoal cerealistas,who stepped ine one much more important and sensitive case at State level: up their activities on the market in the wake of Machina Rio coffee production in Rondônia. Doce,thanks to their access to the illegal cocaine market (and the possible buying up of cerealista companies through a front com- In 1983,the Rabelo brothers' Machina Rio Doce was still only pany; c) the selling on to Cacoal cerealistas, and to the largest of a modest coffee warehouse. Jabes Rabelo travelled throughout them in particular, Jabes Rabelo, of coffee harvests bought by the parts of the region that had been settled and bought up cof- traders in other municipalities in their own trading areas.These (6) Porto Velho Federal Police archives, trial of A. fee harvests. He had known the colonists' milieu well for many might be companies taken over by Rabelo outside Cacoal, Rabelo.Testimony taken down by the Federal Police years (he had been an INCRA official),and he set about using part through local front companies, but they might also be indepen- commissioner in charge of investigations following of his dirty money to buy harvests for a higher price than that usu- dent cerealistas who bought coffee for a good price in their area, the arrest of Abdiel in 1991. ally practised by his competitors.What made life even more diffi- thanks to profit margins made possible by the repurchase price (7) The above testimony was taken down at that cult for them was the fact that he could afford to sell his coffee offered by Rabelo in Cacoal, who then re-exported the coffee to time.It is possible that in order to meet competition from the trafficker some cerealistas themselves got for less than the normal price in other States,as can be seen from other States. involved in trafficking so as to build up a slush fund a remark made in confidence by an independent cerealista in like his,independently or not of the Rabelos's illegal Cacoal: "Cerealistas use coffee to launder drug money," the trader On the one hand, Rabelo's companies, his front companies system. The involvement in trafficking of several said. "And it's easy to prove that from the firm's accounts and the and other cerealista traffickers in Cacoal extended their area of Cacoal cerealistas was in any case attested to by my market prices: the companies owned by a Federal deputy, Jabes operations both within and outside the municipality in which interviews in Cacoal, as well as by police archives. (8) Interview with an official from SEPLAN (Secretaria Rabelo, have been buying coffee at above the normal rate since they were etablished. On the other, cerealistas in other towns de Estado do Planejamento e Coordenaçao Geral), 1984, and selling it to companies outside the State at less than the along the BR 364, well beyond the region of Cacoal, such as Ji Porto Velho,1995. market price,thus discouraging all competition"(6). Parana,Jarù etc.,could survive the prices imposed on the mar-

FORMER NEXT 37 Chapter 3 ket by the Rabelos only by selling back coffee to them, or to the cost of transporting the coffee to coastal ports).The intervie- their official or unofficial representatives in Cacoal or in their wee reckoned that Rondônia's small production could not have towns: the Rabelos now stepped between them and the na- been competitive,in theory,compared with the large plantations tional market. In any case, the process was inevitable: if Jabes of Espirito Santo unless the settlers of Rondônia were very poorly Rabelo was already the biggest cerealista in his town in 1991, paid for their work(11). four years later Cacoal had also become the municipality buying and exporting the largest amount of coffee in this federate The trouble is — and this time it was a manager with Conab State(9).The elites in Cacoal felt it would be appropriate to be- in Porto Velho who expressed surprise — that "Rondônia coffee stow an official honour on the man who had become "the producers are not underpaid"."We cannot tell you anything about biggest buyer in a town that had become the biggest buyer of the coffee of Rondônia", he said initially,"as we don't have any data coffee". Jabes Rabelo was accordingly elevated to the title of that can be used for your research. Our organisation's job is to in- Citizen of Honour of Cacoal(10):the municipal council could,it is tervene on behalf of the State in regions where producers are not ad- true,be proud of the fact that one of its citizens was the State's equately paid by traders.Now it so happens that we have never had biggest buyer and exporter of coffee. to intervene on the coffee market;prices are always satisfactory,and the colonists haven't complained. We have no data on coffee"(12). During their interviews with me, the two officials from Seplan Questions about the "coffee miracle" and Conab drew no compromising conclusion from their observations.They expressed their "surprise" and hinted at something Rondônia's civil servants, engineers and specialised techni- which neither of them agreed to say openly,and which was sub- cians could not in theory have been unaware of the economic sequently confirmed throughout my investigations: the success phenomenon whose driving force until today has been Cacoal of coffee production in Rondônia results from the fact that the trader and Jabes Rabelo in Cacoal.The more perspicacious people ques- who dominates the whole market in the State, Jabes Rabelo, sup- tioned during my investigations speculated about the nature of ports the purchase price obtained by producers, and that this sub- the "coffee miracle" in Rondônia, which the Rondônian authori- sidy is itself funded by dirty money from cocaine trafficking. ties liked to promote in the rest of Brazil (proudly and probably in good faith, in the case of many of them). Coffee production in Rondônia (in other words "the Rondônia miracle") was and remains today subsidised by cocaine money. An experienced official with SEPLAN had noted certain By investing his dirty money in rural trade (the legal activity with anomalies.He observed for example that Rondônia produced the which he was most familiar),Rabelo embarked on a process that same type of coffee (robusta) as was grown under much more irresistibly encouraged him to take control of a market which this (9) Interview with an official from SEPLAN (Secretaria de Estado do Planejamento e Coordenaçao Geral), profitable conditions on the big plantations of Esperito Santo.He time involved hundreds of companies and, beyond that, tens of Porto Velho,1995. noted that the latter plantations were located only a few kilo- thousands of small producers.He took his intervention to its log- (10) Rabelo was informed he was about to receive metres from large export ports, and had direct and rapid access ical conclusion, and completely changed the structure of the this honour shortly before I visited Cacoal,four years to the cities of southern Central Brazil. Now the lorries which market itself at State level by concentrating it in his own hands after the Federal Legislative Assembly had quashed bought Rondônia's coffee output had to drive along tens of (directly or through third parties).That process had the effect of his mandate.The deputy's mandate was quashed not because of his involvement in drug trafficking, but thousands of kilometres of colonists' tracks in very poor condi- seriously harming the interests of his competitors, who were in because he had supplied his chauffeur with a fraud- tion (none of them was asphalted),while wasting a considerable danger of disappearing or of losing their commercial indepen- ulent official pass to the Federal Congress, and be- amount of time in different places loading up the few sacks that dence, with the result that Rabelo was probably forced, in order cause his employee may have used it to evade police each of the thousands of small settlers had managed to fill. to safeguard his position, to take preventive action against pos- checks. sible political or legal reactions on the part of trading circles. He (11) Interview with an official from SEPLAN, Porto Velho, 1995. According to the same official,the costs of transport and fuel had to build up a network of alliances in order to establish, pre- (12) Interview with an official from Conab, Porto entailed by buying coffee in Rondônia should alone have ac- serve or consolidate the balance of power in which he was en- Velho, 1995. counted for "50% of the product's export price" (not to speak of gaged within the elites.

FORMER NEXT 38 Chapter 3 It was already becoming clear why electoral mandates and The trafficking organisation: honorary titles were valuable and indeed indispensable to the legal fiction and clientelist fact Rabelo brothers (whereas they were of no interest to others, and could even get in the way of their strategies,as was the case with The Federal Police commissioner who led investigations into the Braga de Carvalhos for example,when the use of their illegal Jabes Rabelo's entourage, following his brother's arrest, noted earnings did not cause strong economic and social tensions).This the determination of all those he questioned to conceal the "need for political commitment" was probably a burden to all names of company shareholders. In this respect, he noticed a traffickers whose legal activity became a focus for the investment strange atmosphere(13): of their dirty money, when the legal sector in which they operated was affected by it, and when tensions emerged within the "The position of some people in the Rabelos's companies is cu- elites (another case in point is that of Ernandes Amorim,a major rious:at Maxbram,Olivar Barbosa is listed as owner,but he does not trafficker in Ariquemès,a garimpo magnate,a prefect of his town, run it.Instead of him and Nascimento,it's Rosemar who is manager, and now a senator). although he is not registered anywhere, not even as an ordinary employee. Conversely, Rosemar is registered as joint owner of In any case, it may be supposed that the political conversion Transpress Ltda, but the man who runs Transpress is "Tiao", who is of Rabelo's power was made all the easier because the form his a loader at Maxbram and a manager of Transpress.When Tiao was investment took on the coffee market — higher and guaranteed told he was going to have to give evidence to the police,he went off prices for producers — enabled him to build up simultaneously to lunch and never returned." very broad and solid grassroots support which could easily be mobilised and used when an election was in the offing. "Rabelo The commissioner's sarcasm was evident once it had been reis greatly liked by the settlers". Thanks to coffee, Jabes Rabelo be- vealed that there was a clear discrepancy between the legal farce came the de facto benefactor of thousands of people in rural ar- of company statutes and business names on the one hand, and eas. And they were right, from their point of view, to believe the actual hierarchy on the other, which made it possible for what Rabelo said when he prided himself on their support in his criminal activity to take place. I cannot dwell on the musical public speeches, and when he affirmed his determination to chairs that took place among the shareholders and employees of protect coffee producers, or to warn them against the rapa- all these companies during the years 1984-1991 (among whom ciousness of his competitors among the elites. Rabelo had little there was at least one member of the Rabelo family).But I can,on difficulty in completing the constitution of his "electoral herd" the other hand, analyse more precisely the significance and ef- (corral eleitoral) by using traditional populist techniques:he was fects of this functional discrepancy. certain of a triumphant victory when he began, every year at Christmas and at Easter,to send out lorries full of toys,chocolate At a legal level,there existed a set of declared contracts and eggs and various other gifts and sweetmeats which were statutes involving persons and companies that made it possi- handed out to the children of the poor, and when he provided ble to allay the suspicion not only of representatives of the law drinks for charity fêtes free of charge.The political rise of Jabes and the State,but of anyone active outside the sphere of illegal Rabelo was jeopardised by the arrest of his brother in São Paulo trafficking who might want to use their services in accordance in 1991 in possession of 540 kilos of cocaine that was about to with the company's legal name or to contact them for some be exported.But his following among the population and his fi- reason or other. It was that first level of activity, one usually nancial power were in no way affected. known as that of the "fronts",that the commissioner first had to deal with at the beginning of his investigations.He then noted that the contractual and hierarchical links that had been officially put down on paper were meaningless: his interlocutors, (13) Porto Velho Federal Police archives, trial of A. who were caught unawares by the arrest of their boss, were ill Rabelo. prepared to don suits and describe the roles that had been al-

FORMER NEXT 39 Chapter 3 lotted to them by virtue of their legal posts, always supposing ment which could increase in value on the legal market, such as that they could still remember them — indeed, the most mod- apartments in São Paulo,on the coast or elsewhere,as well as ve- est of them had never been told what their role was. hicles,jewels and luxury furniture,etc.The money laundering consisted in this case simply of acquiring with illegal funds a legal deed The general terms "front" or "laundering" are however inade- of ownership capable of rising in value on the market.These were quate to describe the Rabelos's illicit organisation.The Castanhal straightforward investments and did not make it possible to fazenda and Machina Rio Doce, for example, fulfilled very differ- launder dirty money on a continuous basis, unlike the following ent functions within the system set up by the Rabelos, even if investments. both of them could be described by police and journalists as "front" or "laundering" companies. c. Front investments possessing a continuous money laundering function, but without any legal profitability or operational What they probably had in common was their ability to con- function: This was the case for example with the balsas on the ceal illegal operations behind a legal mask and to convert ille- garimpo,which could result in an outright loss on the legal market gally acquired wealth into wealth that was legal and declarable if no gold was extracted on the balsa. On the other hand, such in- to the State. But one can differentiate more precisely between vestments enabled dirty money to be laundered continuously,ac- the actual functions of these various companies, according to cording to the system described above.Some logging companies their operational influence, or not, on actual trafficking, and the bought by traffickers from outside the profession could perform a nature of the money laundering operations they permitted. similar function by unofficially buying illegally extracted precious There is therefore a distinction to be made between: timber and declaring its sale as part of the buyer's own production, as we have just seen(14). a. Front investments without any legal profitability or money laundering function, but possessing operational functions: d.Front investments possessing a continuous money laun- It was the case with the Alta Floresta d'Oeste fazenda, for exam- dering function,and possibly legal profitability,but without any op- ple, which served solely as an air stopover and warehouse for erational function: These investments combined the two previ- strictly trafficking operations.There was no cultivation or grow- ous types of dirty money investments. It was the case with the ing of any kind.The money invested in it served solely to main- Estoril Palace Hotel and the Ramadas Hotel, for example, which tain the airstrip, build makeshift huts and pay the peoes guards. in themselves constituted a dirty money investment capable of A comparable status was typical of the transport companies that generating clean money, such as property that could be sold at a had no staff or fleet of lorries: they simply served to receive profit on the market, but also as companies that were remuner- freight from third parties and,using lorries and drivers also hired ated for their services (unlike villas or luxury vehicles). In this re- from third parties, to transport and camouflage cocaine consign- spect, hotels had the advantage of making possible the continu- ments.The possibility of legally declaring the income that arose ous laundering of extra dirty money, by declaring for example a from such operations was only a marginal, if not fortuitous, con- certain percentage of rooms occupied in a tax year which had in sideration within the whole system. Such companies were fact never been occupied(15). obliged to keep an extremely low profile: it was out of the ques- (14) It is true that such investments were also of an tion for Transpress, for example, to advertise itself. Its legal prof- e.Front investments possibly possessing legal profitability,a con- operational nature,by enabling cocaine to be hidden itability on the market was probably of no interest to Rabelo, tinuous money laundering function and an operational function: among timber and transported. The balsas, when whose first reaction,when the Federal Police swooped,was to get Such investments combined all the advantages of all the previous purchased by traffickers from Guajara Mirim or Porto the company logo removed from the front of the building. types mentioned.This was naturally the case with funds invested Velho,could also be used as transit warehouses when in the purchase of coffee in settlers' areas and in the running of the cocaine was being transported by river. (15) Abdiel Rabelo's wife was in charge of running b. Front investments possessing an occasional money Rabelos's cerealista companies: after the first few years, when Estoril,but I do not know if she in fact falsified the ac- laundering function and possibly legal profitability,but without any prices were slashed, competitors eliminated and the market cap- counts. operational function: This was the case with all property invest- tured, funds invested in coffee purchases, staff salaries and mar-

FORMER NEXT 40 Chapter 3 keting infrastructure began to become profitable on the legal mar- tion with the allocation of responsibilities in the legal, but per- ket (albeit with a lower-than-average profit margin), while at the fectly fanciful, organisation chart of his little "empire". same time making it possible to invest and launder dirty money continuously (through companies' tax declarations, including coffee bought by others without any declaration and sold on to the In the political domain Rabelos, who then declared it as coffee they had bought themselves). Such investments were simultaneously of a direct opera- When traffickers decide to make a bid for electoral office in tional nature, by enabling the transport of cocaine camouflaged in the apparatus of State,they may have met other traffickers on the coffee consignments exported out of the State. political scene who had embarked on rival clientelist manoeuvres locally or regionally.They then competed with each other at This functional classification of investments of illegal funds in the polls, though their sparring could not be interpreted as be- the Rabelos's system is of purely informational value(16). Let us ing a political expression or extension of rivalries connected with keep in mind simply that investments of the last kind,which com- their common illegal activities: there existed no traffickers' "Party" bined all the functions of legal profitability,continuous money laun- as such, even though, as we shall see, a large proportion of them dering and trafficking operationality were also those which guar- rallied for a time to the PTB in Rondônia. Conversely, no political anteed both the greatest amount of power and the best protected party could guarantee that it did not have traffickers in its ranks,ei- company name.This was true of the Rabelos's cerealistas, as in- ther as members of its support committees or as electoral fund deed it was of the Braga de Carvalhos' airlines, the garimpo of providers. Erandes Amorim and the madeireiro companies of many traffickers on the BR 364, etc. A straightforward but implacable process had taken hold of the State's electoral activity many years earlier, comparable in its That is why the names of the shareholders in any of the com- principle with the process described in the economic field: so- panies did not mean much, except that they had agreed to lend called "millionaire" campaigns financed by traffickers disrupted or sell their name, in return for a remuneration that did not nec- the candidates' election budgets to the benefit of those who en- essarily consist of dividends on the profits of the company con- joyed largesse from the traffickers, or who were themselves traf- cerned, always supposing it was able to make any.They tended fickers. Drug money invested in certain campaigns thus had the rather to be given gifts, cars or cash in return for their name and effect of artificially increasing the amount of finance that every- their silence, and did not themselves describe such transactions one needed for their election campaign,with the result that those in business terms.They preferred the standard rhetoric of clien- who did not want to withdraw from the political battle were telism: they were "friends", and it was because they were friends forced, at best, to turn a blind eye to the origin of certain funds and supportive of each other that one of them might offer his made available to support their own campaigns. name and be lent a car in return. No written contract was worth anything compared with one's word and a commitment of loy- The history of links between drug trafficking and politics in alty,which was the only tangible law,unwritten but binding,since Rondônia culminated spectacularly in October 1990 with the its transgression could carry a risk of being killed. murder of Olavo Pires,a senator and trafficker.His murder marked (16) Other subclassifications could be made,involv- regional political history, and it is worth lingering on because it ing other combinations, as in the case of the The police commissioner could feign surprise at the fact that reflects a strategic divergence and a distinct geographical op- Castanhal fazenda and its herd of cattle (a source of the man legally in charge of a Rabelo company seemed subordi- position between two clientelist networks in which traffickers continuous money laundering thanks to the cattle, nate to a man who on paper was registered as his employee,and were involved, between the northwest and the southeast of the and operational as a cocaine transit warehouse), or that the same man who "gave orders" in the company was a sub- State. in the case of aircraft (a source of occasional money laundering for Rabelo, but of continuous money ordinate in another company where on paper he seemed to be laundering for the Bragas,for whom the aircraft were registered as the owner:the commissioner simply noted that the The northwest region corresponds to the historical axis of a legal work tool,and operational in both cases),etc. actual clientelist hierarchy in the Rabelo group had no connec- drug trafficking, which runs from the Bolivian laboratories of

FORMER NEXT 41 Chapter 3 Beni to the capital, Porto Velho, via Guajara Mirim and the portant of them could probably pride themselves on directly or garimpo route. Transit is easy and converges on the capital, indirectly enjoying local power in the municipalities and having which is the seat of the State administration and the scene of direct or indirect access to legislative representation at State or major capital flows and investments. It so happens that geo- Federal level, but the central apparatus of the Federal State of graphical features made it possible for traffickers already estab- Rondônia, which was centred in the capital, was for a long time lished in the region,between Guajara Mirim and Porto Velho,to beyond their control.It was this strategic imbalance,according to enjoy direct access to institutions and senior officials in the State a senior officer in the military police, which caused networks administration in Porto Velho, while carrying out their activities based in the southeast to start their drive to "conquer the capital" along the most important and accessible route of illegal cocaine at the beginning of the 1980s, and which eventually resulted in trafficking. Also to be mentioned are the towns closest to Porto the assassination of the senator. Velho on the BR 364,from Ariquémes to Ji Parana,although traffickers operating in those last-mentioned towns could depend When he was elected senator in 1987, Pires still belonged to for their supplies on the region of Costa Marquès as much as on the PMDB, the former party that opposed the military dictator- Guajara Mirim (Ji Parana marks the southernmost limit of that ship.In that party,he rubbed shoulders with governor Geronimo zone). The focal point of the region was the capital, its infras- Santana and forced him to appoint a trafficker friend of his to the tructure and its international airport, with the result that those post of Secretary of State for the Interior and Justice(18).The strate- who controlled it long enjoyed a dominant strategic position in gic decision taken by Pires at the time was to leave the PMDB and the State, from both an infrastructure and a political point of "switch parties in order to bid for the State government" by bring- (17) Francisco Pereira Torres,known as "Chico Torres" view. ing together the main traffickers among his political clientele or "Odorico de Amazonia", was a former garimpeiro into a single political party, the PTB. His decision to bring in traf- who owned rubber buying firms in Rondônia and Acre, and hotels and much other property in Porto The leading historical traffickers of Porto Velho were known fickers who had personally mobilised in favour of the senator (17) Velho and Guajara Mirim. The same was true of to everybody , but they were all careful not to bring the politi- gave them a public conspicuousness to which the other great Irandê de Castro,owner of the Aquarius Selva Hotel cal community into disrepute.Such influential figures as Marcilon State traffickers had hitherto rarely exposed themselves, and at (long a favourite meeting place of traffickers in the Braga de Carvalho never showed any desire to expose them- the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s the "bancada" capital) and of a great many buildings in Porto Velho. selves on the front line of politics.The low profile kept by such of the PTB in Congress quickly acquired a disastrous reputation Antonio da Silva, known as "Toninho da Silvacar", came from Ceara in 1978-1979.A former taxi driver, traffickers, who had good connections with the social, political that embarrassed all representatives of the State of Rondônia af- he owned in 1988 the largest private fleet of cars, and financial elites in the State capital, and the relative distance filiated to other parties,whatever the nature of the links some of much property and the car hire firm Silvacar. they kept from the trials and tribulations of public life were very them may have had with trafficking. (18) It is true that other unscrupulous figures also different from the behaviour of their colleagues operating in the entered the Santana government, such as Olimpio vast forest and settlement zones of the southeast of the State My information on Pires's specific trafficking activity is Miranda,another PMDB Federal deputy and a police commissioner, who became Secretary of State for (such as Jabes Rabelo). patchy,as the senator rarely brushed with the law,apart from the Security in 1987.Witness O.2.Miranda was promoted seizure of 42 kilos of cocaine in the 1980s that were in the pos- to the government through the intervention of José The southeast region was the stronghold of Jabes Rabelo and session of one of the pilots working in his department.The sen- Vianna (and not Pires),a Federal deputy,whose son- his political mentor, the senator and trafficker Olavo Pires, who ator was cleared in this case (and he got his plane back), as he in-law was shortly afterwards arrested in possession had a political enclave in the south of the region,on the drug traf- was at a later date, when police identified traces of cocaine in of 15 kilos of cocaine, and was opportunely bailed out thanks to the direct intervention of the Secretary ficking route that led from the Bolivian laboratories on the tribu- the boot of his car. Operating as he did between Cacoal and of State for Security, who prevented the Civil Police taries of the Guaporé to Cacoal and Vilhena via Costa Marquès Vilhena, Pires knew Audemir Braga de Carvalho well at the be- in Ji Parana from taking any initiative ("It would be the and Pimenteiras. This region, which is remote from the capital, ginning of the 1980s, and probably also knew the network of worst possible disaster for Rondônia"). Witness 0.1. consists of vast tracts of forest and recent settlements; it has no Colombians led by Camillo R. Gonzales, who had established During his three years' service at the head of the major administrative or trading centre (except for the towns along themselves near Vilhena (they all gravitated around Braga de Ciretran in Ji Parana, Miranda is thought to have fraudulently legalised the papers of 300 vehicles, the BR 364 themselves), and transit is not easy.The traffickers of Carvalho in Porto Velho, with whom it seems that Pires did not which were then made available to his party for the Vilhena, Cacoal, Pimenta Bueno etc. were in a marginal situation get on at all well). Pires, who was a Federal deputy at the time, election campaign. compared with their colleagues in the northwest.The most im- probably already knew the Rabelo family, since they also saw a

FORMER NEXT 42 Chapter 3 lot of the Braga de Carvalhos during their early years as drug much as his friend,and it was with his brother that in June 1988 traffickers. Later, the senator's name was mentioned in connec- they prepared a joint initiative to persuade the Justice Ministry tion with the misappropriation of precious wood, which sug- and the Presidency of the Republic in Brasilia simply to withdraw gests he used the widespread practice of exchanging precious the Regional Secretariat of the Federal Police from Rondônia (at wood illegally extracted by picapau for cocaine, and may have a time when M.C.'s involvement in Pires's trafficking activities used consignments of timber to ferry drugs out of the State. had been established by the Federal Police)(19).

Pires redistributed part of his income throughout the State, Another Federal deputy and ally of Pires had one of the largest through a charity bearing his name,and with the sole aim of es- fortunes in Rondônia.His family also owned a newspaper.He be- tablishing, consolidating or extending his electoral support, in came a senator in the second half of the 1990s despite the fact other words for directly political reasons designed to earn him that his links with cocaine trafficking had often been the subject a mandate at State level.The Olavo Pires Foundation was prob- of a sensational rumour:it was claimed that he ensured "the sup- ably used for money laundering (since illegal funds were used plies of Congress members in Brasilia" who liked cocaine,at a rate for its operation and legalised in its capacity as a charity), but of "about 15 kilos a month,which were sold the day after deputies money laundering was probably not in itself the company's and senators were paid"(20).A third Federal deputy and ally of Pires main objective.The senator also misappropriated medical prod- was a doctor, N.M., who owned a chain of motels in Porto Velho. ucts issued by the Union as part of its health service and redis- But his mandate was later quashed for reasons that had nothing tributed them free of charge at his Foundation's counters and in to do with trafficking (in 1995 he is believed to have arranged the his own name:the legalisation of dirty money was of secondary murder of someone who was threatening to denounce his labo- importance compared with the requirements of clientelism. ratories;his brother,C.M.,also became a Federal deputy.Lastly OS, who later became a senator alongside C.C.and Ernandes Amorim Among the public figures who worked alongside Pires,in ad- (both of them traffickers or ex-traffickers),owned fazendas,much dition to Rabelo, who became a Federal deputy, and a number property and a communications group based in Cacoal and of other men from the southeast, there were also representa- Pimenta Bueno.O.S.,a very influential and much feared man,was tives of trafficking families in Porto Velho, who have even today not always credited by people I spoke to with any direct involve- (19)The move — or the mere fact of having planned continued to enjoy considerable wealth and political and social ment in cocaine trafficking,but no one was in any doubt as to his to carry it out — reveals an astonishing belief on the influence. M.C., for example, sold carpets, records and religious eminent status as a "godfather" of the traffickers in the region part of these outlaw nouveaux riches that their ac- images when he arrived in the capital, but by 1990 he had al- ("apadrinha eles").Etc. tivity was subject to impunity,if not actually "legiti- ready become the owner of the State's biggest daily newspaper mate" in their eyes. It shows how extremely com- (with a circulation of about 20,000 copies) and of technical fa- Senator Pires was able then to exert a direct influence on the monplace drug trafficking had become in the highest echelons of social life and the State of Rondônia. cilities (for printing and type-setting) that were "worthy of the southeast region of Rondônia (the quadrilateral formed by Costa These men repeatedly indicated their intention to First World".M.C.allowed Pires to express himself in the columns Marquès,Pimenteiras,Vilhena and Cacoal),with strategic ramifica- take advantage of their political status in the State of the State's most influential paper, as well as on the waves of tions in the capital which gave him control of powerful communi- to neutralise the Federal Police. Pires also pledged his radio station.This gave him access to the elites of the capital cations facilities at State level,and a considerable lever of influence that if he became governor he would "deactivate that was all the more productive because the latter themselves at the very heart of the Porto Velho elites. Lastly, he could rely on the CONTREC" in Rondônia. (20) This rumour,along with others,was made pub- had an interest in maintaining good relations with M.C.'s paper. dozens of local elected representatives who backed him and his lic by the Brazilian edition of the magazine Playboy, His brother had been arrested once in Brasilia in possession of a programme — whether or not they knew what they were doing which in 1991,just after the arrest of Abdiel Rabelo, few kilos of cocaine, and owned a plane (Baron) which at the — in all the towns along the BR 364 and the pioneers' routes be- published one of the few in-depth reports on large- time operated continuously on routes linking Costa Marquès, tween Cacoal and Vilhena, Cerejeira, Colorado d'Oeste, Costa scale drug trafficking in Rondônia at the time Pimenteiras and Cerejeiras with Corumba, Presidente Prudente Marquès, Pimenteiras, etc. Pires's network would have won the (Playboy, October 1991, p. 150). I do not know whether the rumour was false or partly true. The and São Paulo — in other words the very drug trafficking routes election of 1990 if the senator, who was well placed after the first quantity of cocaine mentioned seems very exag- along the "southeast" axis making up Pires's and Rabelo's clien- round, had not been machine-gunned a few days before the sec- gerated. telist and electoral enclave. M.C. was also Pires's "compadre" as ond round,leaving his place to the new governor,Oswaldo Pianna.

FORMER NEXT 43 Chapter 3 All the magistrates and police who investigated the murder bring together figures whose area of activity and populist elec- (they were not,it is true,given the time they needed to complete toral grassroots were located in a rather out-of-the-way,relatively their inquiry) suspected that friends of the newly elected gover- marginalised part of the State:for them,the State was a prize worth nor had ordered Pires's assassination. As for what concerns us bidding for.But in the eyes of the middle classes and of the legal, here,it should above all be remembered that Pianna's entourage financial and administrative elites, they were stuck with an out- may have included just as many traffickers,and among the most law image that offended a large proportion of the people they powerful, as Pires's, and that their murderous, politically moti- came into contact with, who may have suffered from or felt vated behaviour at the 1991 elections cannot be interpreted as threatened by the circulation of dirty money to which they did an attempt by a group backing a traditional oligarchic project not have access,or been sincerely shocked and frightened at the (officially illegal,but accepted as customary) to block a rival pro- idea of seeing prominent traffickers elected to the highest office ject inspired by the illegal interests of trafficking. The political in their State.In this respect,Pianna and his entourage were seen plan of Pianna's supporters was not executed on behalf of the le- as a more presentable alternative.And in any case their plan was gal elites so as to prevent the State from being taken over by il- not to conquer the State but to maintain control of it.Their the- legal elites,since both of them associated with traffickers.And in atre of operations and electoral grassroots tended to be located any case, if the confrontation directly or indirectly involved two in the northwest region around the capital,where most of them, distinct groups of traffickers, there is nothing to suggest that even if they had not originated in the apparatus of State, main- their divergences arose from rivalries within the illegal activity it- tained close and long-standing links with its members. And all self.The antagonistic stance of some traffickers on the political they asked for was to return to the administration or perpetuate stage did not prevent them from working together on occasion their valuable links there. Traffickers among their supporters within the strict framework of their illegal business activities. acted discreetly, and while they expected the new governor and Their political antagonism did not necessarily allow them to flout his entourage to be loyal to their interests, they did not plan to the basic rules of their outlaw community,or to infringe the cen- expose themselves personally on the political stage like Pires or sorship that banned any public mention or revelation of illegal Rabelo,let alone band together ostentatiously within a single po- activity by any of them, even if they were opponents.The argu- litical party so as to turn it into a power-winning instrument. In ment that there existed a criminal complicity with drug traffick- short, Pires was not a respectable man, and it was common ing was absent from the election campaign, since wealthy traf- knowledge that he was a crook (his election might have fickers formed part of the organisation chart of each of the two prompted a reaction on the part of the Federal authorities), groups of political supporters.Their antagonism seems rather to whereas everyone could pretend to be unaware of the fact that have arisen from two differing conceptions of the strategy that Pianna's entourage also included some leading traffickers,always needed to be followed as regards their relationship,as traffickers, supposing that he was not one himself(21). The rivalry between with legal society and more particularly with the political com- Pires and Pianna's entourage was not between one group of sup- munity.On this issue,it would seem that the viewpoints held re- porters that respected the law and another that was criminal,but spectively by the traffickers of the southeast axis and by those in two sets of supporters that included outlaws and pursued con- (21) The magistrate who demanded the resources the northwest and in the capital were contradictory. tradictory strategies when it came to combining illegal activity he needed to complete his investigations into Pires's with public life. murder was told by one of Pires's colleagues in the senate:"We did all we could do for Senator Olavo Pires: Pires was a notorious trafficker whose behaviour was often we held a mass for him". Many people felt relieved ostentatious,brutal and inappropriate,and many of his support- Pires's murder, Abdiel Rabelo's arrest and the quashing of when he was murdered. ers behaved like him: they embodied the fraction of the pio- Jabes Rabelo's term of office forced the other major traffickers in (22) Jabes Rabelo continued to move in local high neering elite that had suddenly emerged in the State at the be- the southeast to keep a low profile and to wait for a time in the society circles during the 1990s (when he became ginning of the 1980s thanks to cocaine trading: nouveaux riches political wings(22).But for several years now,the successors of the president of the Country Club,among other things), while continuing his business as a coffee merchant "barons" of the "cocaine cycle", they were disconcertingly un- murdered senator's supporters, traffickers on the Pimenteiras- (which resulted in his being elected Honorary couth and naive in their behaviour.Their daring strategy was to Cerejeira-Colorado d'Oeste-Vilhena axis,have seized back the ini- Citizen of the town of Cacoal). rely on powerful political, financial and media networks, and to tiative. The D. brothers, fazendeiros who live in the region of

FORMER NEXT 44 Chapter 3 Colorado d'Oeste and have a secret route running through their notorious "coffee miracle" in Rondônia) in areas where the injec- land, recently set out to win over politicians in a manner remi- tion of illegal capital into the legal economy has had its most niscent of that used by the late trafficker.They organised a free massive impact. health service (in particular dental care) for the poorest sections of the population,with similar results:they gained massive supp- But the majority of businessmen in Rondônia are of course port.When I was carrying out my investigations (in 1997),one of not traffickers, even if, in some sectors of economic life, they all the brothers was preparing to get himself elected to the prefec- have to accept that traffickers exist and operate on their mar- ture of Vilhena, outside the electoral enclave of his family in kets. Similarly, not all elected representatives are either traffick- Colorado, but at the transit point of cocaine travelling from ers or men of straw. On the other hand, it would seem undeni- Pimenteiras(23). Another brother was preparing his election as able that no public figure can hope to get elected in Rondônia Federal deputy, while a third was elected State deputy on a list against the interests and without the explicit or implicit consent of affiliated to the governor's political alliance. The governor re- traffickers: the minimum condition, in the outlaws' eyes, is that vealed the scale of his ambitions at the Porto Velho Legislative the candidate for any office must provide some implicit guar- Assembly and the resources on which he could draw in order to antee of his or her determination not to mobilise the authorities satisfy them:he managed to get himself elected President of the against their activities. It is in fact the whole population that State Legislative Assembly by his colleagues after having bought finds itself,consciously or unconsciously,subject to that censor- the votes of more than a dozen deputies, a move that cost him ship,or self-censorship.I shall conclude this study with a discus- something in the region of $2m in all (expressed in reals)(24).The sion of that mechanism. D. brothers, sometimes referred to as the "Kings of the Southern Cone", were understandably seen as heading one of the main If one takes the inhabitants of Cacoal, for example, one re- "up-and-coming" drug trafficking networks in the State.They had alises that dozens of them knew something precise about the in fact "come up" from the southeast, after a period when the criminal activities of their Federal deputy,without ever knowing successors of Pires's supporters had had to stay more or less out quite the whole story. These people were neither blind nor of politics. stupid: each of them possessed fragments of reliable and direct information about the Rabelos's trafficking branch of activity with which they came into contact through personal experience. Conclusion: a society ruled by drug And they also possessed a vaguer type of information,conveyed trafficking by rumour, about the rest of the group's illegal activities. Lastly, each of these people had a family,friends and contacts to whom I do not have information that would make it possible to mea- they would reveal parts or all of their knowledge, and who were sure the economic effects of illegal trading in the federal state of likely to pass it on to their own circle. In other words, there were Rondônia.However,the information at my disposal does,it seems thousands of people who possessed a few disparate but rather to me, amply demonstrate that no investigations into Rondônia's precise pieces of information,as well as other information which economic activity can reflect the truth of the situation over the past reached them after being distorted by rumour,and which would 15 years unless it recognises the scale of illegal capital generated by confirm or complete their speculation in the course of private cocaine and the ways in which it accumulates and circulates. conversations — without them always being able themselves to Unfortunately, the studies on which national and international distinguish between fact and fiction when their sources were too institutions and organisations have based their intervention in remote. (23)The former vice-prefect of Vilhena owned a trans- Rondônia since the beginning of the "cocaine cycle" complied port company and a cement works.He too was cred- fully with the local rules of censorship that forbid its mere exis- In other words, none of the inhabitants of Cacoal in fact had ited with trafficking activities (Witness O.2). (24) There was talk in Porte Velho of 13-15 deputies tence to be mentioned. Under these circumstances, it is under- the slightest doubt as to the existence of illegal activities organ- having agreed to sell their vote for 100,000-140,000 standable that civil servants and researchers have been forced to ised by Jabes Rabelo.They could speculate about the scale and reals each (Witness O.1.,Witness 2.,Document O.1.). note the existence of incomprehensible "miracles" (such as the precise nature of the illegal operations and about the actual

FORMER NEXT 45 Chapter 3 amounts of money involved.And as there were several groups of strictly private sphere. In other words, just as long as they might traffickers in Cacoal, as in other towns, they could also speculate wonder whether the person they were talking to had himself about the degree of independence the groups enjoyed vis-à-vis agreed to the self-censorship which they had imposed on them- each other, about the names of the "testa de ferro" and those of selves, and which meant that information could not be released the actual owners (this was a particularly popular guessing game into the public domain. in people's conversations),the reasons for the latest murder and the identity of the people behind it,etc.Such information was the Some found the consequences of this situation rather com- subject of public conjecture for a time (almost everything gets ical, and claimed that "the police were the last to know" (as I out in the end).But irrespective of the unconnected details of the was often told when people discovered what the subject of my latest example of criminal activity, no one doubted or disputed investigations was).This widespread and provocative assertion the simplest hard facts that Jabes and Abdiel Rabelo were co- was an exaggeration, but it reflected the same phenomenon: caine traffickers (they got cars stolen in their region and had one could not tell a policeman or magistrate anything in their them sent to Bolivia), or that they had political ambitions (they capacity as a policeman or magistrate. Most civil police, local were capable of killing or arranging the murder of those who be- people well integrated into local life, were certainly no less trayed or threatened them).Abandoned corpses and people who aware of the situation than their neighbours, friends or family, disappeared mysteriously periodically reminded the incautious but if they knew something they owed their knowledge to the or the thoughtless of what they could and could not do. fact that they may have been told about it in private, on the understanding that they would make no use of it in their capacity as The Rabelos's illegal activities were perceived by some as all officers of the law, in other words on the understanding that the more powerful and worrying because they were implicitly they would apply the same rules of self-censorship to them- denied, and because public opinion itself encouraged that de- selves as all their fellow citizens did,and that the policeman as nial. All information connected with trafficking was passed on a private individual would not go and say anything to the pub- only within the framework of private relations, to trustworthy lic servant he theoretically became the moment he put on his people and sometimes under the seal of secrecy.There was in uniform. fact no real secret at all, since the same information sometimes spread like wildfire throughout the network of private relations, Magistrates, local policemen, elected representatives and while always being described as "secret" information...But every- journalists might well discover all the facts at the same time as one knew the absolute limit beyond which it was impossible to go, everyone else,in this respect,provided their informers were cer- that of public life. tain that the people they had spoken to would not use such secrets in their judicial, police, political or media capacity.That did Some people might indeed be in the dark about the latest ex- not at all mean that such officials were therefore involved in an ample of criminal activity in Cacoal,as they themselves preferred open case of corruption: all they were doing was applying to not to know about it:they would discourage conversations about themselves the requirements of self-censorship that applied to it or change the subject, perhaps assuming in a confused way everyone, without even sometimes fully realising the strange that they would be protected by their ignorance (unless of phenomenon of mental dissociation that then affected their discourse it was simply that such knowledge worried them). But course: a case in point is the universally respected desembar- other people would revel in talking about the shady activities of gador who had deserved well of the magistracy of Guajara Mirim their deputy, or wax indignant about them, in private conversa- and Porto Velho, and whose main concern was to persuade me tions where the aim was to seem to be better informed than any- that Guajara Mirim was "a good town" even though he knew one else.But those same people knew when to keep their mouth more or less exactly how serious the crimes were that were com- shut,or when to dodge the issue in front of strangers:they would mitted in his border town.Another civil servant who had worked say nothing, or say that they knew nothing, just as long as they for years with local branches of the World Bank was clearly con- remained unconvinced that their knowledge would remain in a cerned that his State should preserve its honorable image:for ten

FORMER NEXT 46 Chapter 3 years he had witnessed Rondônia's "coffee miracle" without being able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for it, since he had forbidden himself, unconsciously and in perfectly good faith, to entertain the possibility that the "miracle" concerned might have been the result of cocaine money investment.

Individual knowledge of major drug trafficking in the region and in the State was,then,both fragmented and extensive.But it did not prevent anyone from going along with a public denial that is today just as radical and vigorous as it ever was:officially,when I carried out investigations from 1995 to 1997,major drug trafficking still did not exist in the State of Rondônia.In this sense,it becomes clear that while there was definitely widespread connivance it cannot for all that be interpreted as a manifestation of complicity or even of collective spinelessness: people were genuinely afraid (even though barely consciously), because transgression of censorship — public denunciation — undoubtedly carried with it, after "warnings" and a procedure that differed from case to case,a risk of being murdered. It is understandable that local people reacted strongly to allega- tions in southern newspapers which collectively branded them as "accomplices".The self-censorship that those people collectively imposed on themselves, well beyond the circle of traffickers and those directly or indirectly in hock to them,cannot be regarded as "complicity".Nor did it fundamentally arise from secondary advantages that some of them derived from the existence of an illegal activity.In the last account,it was part of an open or internalised logic of terror. In that sense, the people of Rondônia lived in a society ruled by drug trafficking.

FORMER

47 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 But independently of these powerful groups, and before the HISTORY OF TWO highway had even been completed, trafficking had an immedi- CITIES IN BETWEEN ate impact on the local economy and social life: by the first half DRUG TRAFFICKING: of the 1980s, it had caused the riverside settlers and the original river economy to dwindle or disappear gradually.The traffickers, GUAJARA MIRIM AND who had installed laboratories and airstrips a few kilometres COSTA MARQUES from the left bank (the Bolivian side) of the river, bought the si- Christian Geffray lence or complicity of people living by the river by offering them the staple commodities they needed (sugar, oil, coffee, tobacco, gunpowder,ammunition for hunting,etc.).The seringalista bosses or marreteiros who usually exchanged such goods for the output of their clients/dependents could not compete with the traffickers' "gifts". It may be assumed, moreover, that a certain number of people living by the river, who were in regular contact with Before the opening of the BR 429 Bolivian traffickers, were able to participate directly in the traf- highway ficking, which was far more lucrative than tapping rubber or gathering Brazil nuts. As the seringalista traders' profit margins In the 1970s and up to the beginning of the 1980s, Costa had already been squeezed, the river trade soon collapsed and Marques was a modest river port that could be reached by boat the rubber tappers gradually abandoned their colocaçoes. or by plane. Cocaine trading boomed there towards the mid- Between Guajara Mirim and Costa Marquès, the river banks are 1980s with the opening of the BR 429 highway, which encour- today virtually deserted. Most sites which were once inhabited aged a tide of migrants to pour into Costa Marquès.The highway have now been abandoned.All that is left are clearings and a few was not asphalted,but it did connect Costa Marques with the BR ramshackle huts on top of the barrancos(1). In addition, a certain 364 (asphalted),which in turn connected Rondônia to the rest of proportion of the trading elites or local seringalistas, possibly Brazil's road network.The BR 429 highway facilitated the distri- hard hit by unfair "competition" from the traffickers (in the dis- bution via Brazil of cocaine refined in laboratories set up oppo- tribution of staple commomdities to the riverside population), site Costa Marquès, on the left (Bolivian) bank of the Guaporé went over into trafficking at that time. river,or on the banks of the Machupo river in Bolivia (San Ramon, San Joaquim, Magdalena). It is well known that several old trading families or "traditional" seringalistas (they were often one and the same thing) had partly The cocaine trade was however already well established in gone over into illegal trading and today own a considerable em- the region by the beginning of the 1980s. Bolivian laboratories pire of property and business enterprises — in many cases in had been set up on the banks of rivers in the Beni basin,some of Guajara Mirim,rather than in Costa Marques.Guajara Mirim,which which feed the Brazilian Mamoré and Madeira rivers, into which is located downstream,was historically responsible for the found- the Guaporé flows. At that time, in similar fashion to the phe- ing of Costa Marquès, and there are close economic and family nomenon I observed in Mato Grosso (ref.), trafficking chiefly in- ties between the two border towns. volved groups of people who secretly exported the ether, ace- (1) An elevation of the river bank forming a mound tone, sulphuric acid and potassium permanganate that were that could be up to 8m in height.The departure of needed for cocaine refinement in Bolivia.The smuggling of these The opening of the BR 429 highway the seringueiros was speeded up on the right bank, precursors, which were often paid for with cocaine, was respon- in Brazil, by the creation of Indian Areas.The official territorialisation of the Indians resulted in the ex- sible in both Rondônia and Mato Grosso for the formation of the As a result of the opening of the BR 429 highway, which pro- pulsion of people living by the river, most of whom most powerful,spectacular and long-lasting trafficking networks vided access for migrants and above all a direct link to the labo- settled in towns. in the State. ratories on the opposite side of the river in Bolivia, cocaine trad-

NEXT 48 Chapter 4 ing took on considerable proportions and the local economy was goods: 20 cases, 30 cases...The store was constantly full, right up thoroughly disrupted. Bolivian army officers posted at Orquilla, to the ceiling,and that wasn't even enough to satisfy the demand on the Machupo riuver, took their cut on consignments of co- for goods.That meant there were a lot of people who came from caine travelling from San Ramon or San Joaquim, before the San Ramon and San Joaquim (Bolivian river towns).There were boats entered the Guaporé river,opposite the Brazilian army base not many people from Magdalena,most of them came from San at Forte Principe da Beira(2).The authorities in charge of legal re- Ramon and San Joaquim. You should have seen them... It was pression seemed powerless to do anything at that time — when hard managing to keep enough stock to meet demand. they were not themselves involved in trafficking: - Did the demand come from Bolivia? - That's right. - Trafficking had a huge impact on Costa Marques,given that - But weren't there Brazilians here too,in Costa Marquès,who police commissioners were themselves involved in it... A com- sold cocaine to other Brazilians who had come from elsewhere? missioner there, I think he already died...he was arrested and - No.It happened this way:the Bolivians brought the product thrown out of the police force.He had set up a system of cocaine [cocaine], and those who were interested looked out for them. receiving in Costa Marques,and he made everything easy for ev- - Were the vendors Bolivians? eryone. Everyone... Anyone who wanted to set himself up as a - That's it, until now. trafficker at the beginning of the 1980s and up until 1986-1987 - So it was above all Bolivians,too,who paid for goods here in could do so without any problems.There was no repression. (...) dollars? That's the way it was:the trafficker would come from Bolivia with - They bought stuff from our stores, precisely because they cocaine which he sold for cash in Costa Marques. The money didn't want to go home with their pockets stuffed with dollars. came from buyers who had come from other Brazilian States They bought goods, and they themselves generally had a store along the BR 364.They were the mules of the big traffickers, and or something like that back home. They bought oil, sugar and they came with money to buy cocaine in Costa Marques. The wheat, that's what sold best. Bolivians who brought their cocaine and sold it spent all their - And they took all that back to Bolivia... money on goods here in Costa Marques.They spent the whole - They took it to sell back home.That's how we people began lot here.They laundered their money and went back to Bolivia. to enjoy a certain prosperity...

A woman storekeeper in Costa Marques gives evidence: A civil policeman added:

- (...) We didn't even have time to unload our goods in the har- - So the retailer who sold his goods, he made money, didn't bour... It was incredible. I experienced that. (...) In fact, people he? But the source of all that money was cocaine.Big retailers set came from Brazil to buy the product [cocaine] and brought dol- up in business here intending to launder that money. Because lars with them,because at the time the Bolivians insisted on it be- the retailer himself knew very well that the money he got from (2) At that time there were reports of a middleman ing paid for in dollars.It had to be dollars.Those who wanted [co- selling his goods came from cocaine, didn't he? He knew, but of operating between a certain "Pelé", a reserve offi- caine] and who only had cruzeiros tried to buy dollars here, so course he said to himself: "I've got nothing to do with that, I sell cer at Forte Principe de Beira,and a Bolivian supplier. they could then buy the product. By the way, there's a detail I my goods and I want the money", didn't he? But nowadays the I do not know if the officer was the same as the one in Guajara Mirim whose remarkable wealth I shall should mention: when you saw someone desperate to get hold people who set up and worked in that line of business at the mention later on. Also worth noting is the case of a of dollars, you knew that was why. And even as regards (legal) time, in the 1980s, are no longer making a go of it... leading Costa Marquès retailer, who was suspected trading, dollars were eventually accepted as a normal currency of concealing cocaine among goods transported to here... People accepted dollars, people bought dollars, and ev- They are indeed no longer making a go of it, because there his company by lorry:he is believed to have been in- eryone must have known the exchange rate at any given time is no more money in circulation in Costa Marques. Two of the volved in smuggling four tractors that were bartered for cocaine in Bolivia, an operation covered and fa- because lots of payments were made in that way:in dollars.Well, three banks of the golden age have now closed down.All that is cilitated at the border by the Costa Marquès civil po- what with all that, to give you some idea, there were days when left is the BERON, the state-owned bank.There are no more big lice's commissioner. we had to make five or six trips to the harbour, to fetch a lot of stores,big companies or gleaming store signs:the "Copacabana

FORMER NEXT 49 Chapter 4 of Rondônia" has had its day. The town is now inhabitated by Ramon or San Joaquim.And it is likely that in return it was still be- civil servants, and a few small basic stores have survived that ing used for the transport of cocaine consignments.This ambi- cater for the poor and ordinary people you find in border towns guity encouraged a probably unfounded rumour that from the in Amazonia,whose numbers have been swollen by Bolivian im- start the road was built to facilitate cocaine trafficking itself and migrants since 1993.The influence of the cocaine market on the the disposal of stolen vehicles (hence the name often given to economy of Costa Marquès has changed in nature since the big the road: "transcoca").The retailers of Costa Marques who were Bolivian merchants pulled out,but it has not disappeared for all behind the project were in good faith when they angrily de- that.At the end of the 1980s,retailers were already reacting,try- nounced this interpretation. ing to convince the Bolivians to come back and spend money in their stores. Under pressure from retailers, the prefect himself - Some people supported the project in the hope of facilitat- stepped into the fray. ing the transport of cocaine and stolen vehicles to Bolivia. But others supported it with good intentions, to bring more money - When money began to disappear from Costa Marques, no here. But it didn't work at all, with the result that everyone has one could understand why...The banks left because there was closed down their stores now. Those who still have a store in no moremoney. Only the BERON stayed. In a desperate move, Costa Marquès are now very few in number, and not many of the prefect built a road leading from Forte Principe da Beira to them are honest... San Ramon. A road was opened up, and a lot of people supported the project, which created an outlet for Costa Marques goods: the idea was to make it easier for cars to come from San Testimony and analysis of a retailer Ramon, so people would come back and make more purchases in Costa Marques... So Bolivians who wanted to buy things, for The decline in the retail trade at the end of the 1980s was example, would no longer have any travel problems when the abrupt, and caused many stores to go under. Maria H., the store- river [Machupo] was low and it was difficult to get here and all keeper whose testimony I have already referred to, ran a pros- that...So we built a road so the Bolivians could drive their cars to perous business in Costa Marquès until about 1989,when things the point opposite the Fort, make their purchases, cross back began to go downhill and her company was ruined, like many over the river,put the stuff they had bought in Costa Marques in others, in the 1990s. Perhaps she belonged to the town's elites their cars and drive back to San Ramon. But it was a desperate who in good faith encouraged the building of the "transcoca" in attempt to bring back the Bolivians... order to re-establish a trade outlet.

The plan was ambiguous, because in the end it meant en- - I was a retailer here.I arrived in about 1988 — at the time my couraging people to bring their narco-dollars to Costa Marquès, father had a large store here.He came when business here was at and therefore to launder their cocaine money,so as to help local its most feverish,when lots of people came through here and ev- stores to thrive. The national press mentioned the plan in July erything sold like hot cakes.It was when they built that road there, 1991.It was a failure:the road was driven through a marshy area, the BR 429 highway (from Costa Marquès to the BR 364) .When it was flooded and impassable during the rainy season, and the the road opened, people began to arrive and settle here, and at Bolivians did not go back and do their shopping in Costa the same time the stuff from over there (cocaine)(3) began to arrive Marquès.On the other hand,as that period coincided with an in- too.At the time there was already some around,as people talked crease in the number of stolen vehicles bartered, it is possible about there being big laboratories here on the river banks. (3) Throughout the interview, Maria H. avoided us- that the road was used for that purpose during the dry season. (...) I know that before we came here there was very intensive ing the word "cocaine" or "drug". She preferred to Originally built to allow an "honest laundering" of dirty Bolivian buying and selling of cattle,lots of people came here from the BR talk about "the product" or used periphrases. (4) (4) The towns located on or near the federal road: money, the road was used much more, in the end, for the transit 364 to buy Bolivian cattle. But when one thinks about it today, Cacoal, Ji Parana, Pimenta Bueno, Rolim de Moura, of cars,lorries,motorcycles and tractors stolen in Brazil and taken one realises that Bolivian cattle was no good at all compared with Alvorado d'Oeste etc. to Costa Marques before being exchanged for cocaine in San ours, here in Brazil, which were already selected, disinfected and

FORMER NEXT 50 Chapter 4 put out to grass.They were nothing but "pé dura". But there was unhusked rice there, in San Joaquim. So I told the Bolivians that a scramble to buy those cattle. And afterwards, much later, I dis- it couldn't work — their buildings were made of mud bricks,you covered that all the cows had been stuffed with OB.(...) It's an ab- know,and it was very damp and cold in there.When I saw all that sorbent that women put in their private parts.(...) So all the cows rice stored there, I said to them: "Do you realise you won't even be came with an OB, according to what I was told, with cocaine in- able to preserve this rice?" And I pointed out a thousand problems side. to them, by showing them that their rice was going to go off if they did that kind of business, and all that. I said they had been The cows, once their load had been removed, were taken misled, and that they should go and exchange their cocaine for back to Bolivia,where they picked up a new consignment.That is whatever they wanted, but not for rice! I guaranteed to supply at least what someone suggested to me a few weeks later in Ji them if they stopped doing their business with rice. But while I Parana, one of the destinations of Bolivian cattle. Maria H. re- was talking, there was one of them looking to the left and an- members the prosperity and decline of big local retailers: other to the right... No, it's true, I showed them that the rice was really going to go off there,there was rice which had been there - (...) By the time my father died in 1990, trade had already for three months and was beginning to rot. It was their storage dried up.I found it difficult to sell as there was no longer anyone method,their way of keeping everything locked up in a confined to sell to.Take rice. I used to sell about three, four, five and even space, you know, with all that dampness — because the build- six tonnes.It was husked rice,as we had a rice machine here.And ings out there are very damp. But even after our conversation, then there came a time — I had already begun to treat the rice they no longer bought my rice,they didn't want any more of it.It and had 200,300 or 500 sacks in storage — when it suddenly be- was at that time that (cocaine) was increasingly bartered for mo- came impossible to sell it.There were no Bolivians to buy it. One torbikes, cars, motors, tractors, jewelry, cattle... day during that period, there was a fête at San Joaquim for the - But this time the cattle went in the other direction... patron saint of the town,on about July 21...They had invited the - Yes, this time they did.They went from here to there. Chamber of Commerce from here,the trade association.So I went - To be exchanged for drugs... along. I arrived there and started talking with various people. - That's right. Then I suddenly realised what was going on.I realised why I was- - It was at that time that stores began to close, wasn't it? n't selling any rice: they were exchanging untreated rice for co- - That's right, when cocaine could only be obtained through caine. I remember that because, at that time, I too drank a little, barter, or exchanged for lorries and cars... Even today, a car turns you know...I kicked up a bit of a fuss there...I challenged the most up here one night,and by next morning it's gone.Sometimes you important people in the town, and I asked them what they had don't even see it at all. in their brains. Why were they exchanging their product [cocaine],which,according to what everyone says,is the best in the world, the purest and all that, for rice, when they know nothing River traffic: secret landing-stages about rice...They knew nothing about rice, and I told them they and bartered vehicles were being misled... But I was defending my livelihood, sir! Because obviously if they no longer exchanged their cocaine for So the economic life of Costa Marques had been no more rice, I would have been able to sell them my rice! than ticking over since the end of the 1980s.True, many traffick- - But who was going to sell them rice? ers may have come through or resided in the town, but retailers - The people on the BR 364.They came from Bom Principe, could no longer get their hands on their narco-dollars. Several Sao Miguel, Alvorada. People came from all along the BR 364 to large fazendas in the neighbourhood had airstrips that were exchange rice. used for the export of precursors or the import of cocaine, but - Did they go directly to San Joaquim? this was simply a case of pure transit connected with major ex- - They started here in Costa Marquès.They would come in lor- port trafficking, which never had any notable effect on the eco- ries and go off with the rice. I saw four or five warehouses full of nomic life of the town.The moment when things were thrown

FORMER NEXT 51 Chapter 4 into disarray for the retail trade coincided, according to what all by using instead the criss-cross network of settlers' tracks.Some the people I interviewed said, with the change in the conditions of the landing-stages are located right opposite the tributary of under which cocaine was obtained — in other words,when peo- the Machupo,barely 100m from Forte Principe da Beira,where a ple stopped buying it for cash and exchanged it instead for Brazilian army detachment is stationed.The soldiers observe the stolen goods (vehicles, etc.) or smuggled-out goods (rice har- traffickers' movements without intervening, because, according vests)(5).During that period,the local police concentrated most of to army rules,control of river traffic is the exclusive responsibility their activities, when they had the resources and the will to take of the police. action,on river traffic.It involved intercepting stolen vehicles (or precursors), which were illegally brought into the region before Some of these landing-stages can be spotted from the river.It being sent across the river to Bolivia. is possible to make out on tree trunks traces of the ropes that allow a vehicle to be sent across,while being kept under control,on Between Guajara Mirim and Costa Marques (about 220km of a "chata"."Chatas" are simple wooden barges as wide as a lorry,on navigable water), several rivers flow from Bolivia into the the gunwhales of which horizontal planks are fastened that cor- Mamoré and Guaporé rivers from the left, from which it took respond to the average distance between vehicles' wheels,and ca- three or four hours by motorboat to reach the sites where co- pable of bearing a lorry's weight.The car,van or tractor is let down caine was refined:on the Mamoré towards Trinidade,and on the the embankment, guided and held back by ropes, before being Machupo and Baures towards San Ramon and San Joaquim. put on to the planks of the barge.The barge is sometimes driven Some laboratories once used to be very close to the banks of the by a simple outboard motor at the stern (with a long horizontal Guaporé:opposite the mouth of the Cautario river,for example, axle that can be raised).The operation takes only a few minutes if or on "René"'s fazenda, only four kilometres downstream from all goes well.The chata crosses the river and enters the Machupa, Forte Principe da Beira,and a few hundred metres from the river up which it travels as far as San Ramon or San Joaquim. bank.That fazenda had airstrips and, it is believed, a small "private army" of bodyguards who kept the estate under surveil- During the dry season, when navigation on the river is prob- lance thanks to the presence of watchtowers (which could not lematic, but when the "transcoca" on the other hand becomes be seen from the river). Those sites have now in theory been practicable, vehicles might be landed on the other side of the abandoned following increased Bolivian repression over the Machupo a few kilometres downstream, before being driven by (5) Smuggled goods that were exchanged for co- past three years. road to the same Bolivian towns.Other landing-stages are barely caine also included,as we shall see in subsequent re- identifiable when seen from the river: they are too narrow, the ports, coffee, gold and cassiterite. On the right bank of the river,on the Brazilian side,the secret undergrowth is too thick and the slope of the embankment too (6) After putting in at the river bank, I met a few "harbours" or landing-stages via which vehicles stolen in Brazil steep for lorries or even cars to be loaded: they are used for mo- peoes who were clearing a hectare of forest not far (6) away.They were working for a Guajara Mirim retailer are sent on their way to be bartered in Bolivia are currently in op- torbikes and 200 litre cans of precursors . who was notorious for being involved in trafficking, eration. There are several of them near Guajara Mirim (on the but my guides were unaware of the fact that he had banks of the Mamoré and Pacass Novo rivers), but most of them bought this piece of land in the area,which required are to be found in the vicinity of Costa Marquès: a little down- Bolivian immigration a two-day journey by voadeira from his residence in stream from Forte Principe da Beira, and, further upstream, in a Guajara Mirim.There was little doubt in their minds that the retailer was planning to build a landing- continuous succession until a point only a few hundred metres Several hundred Bolivians immigrated into the region of stage for loading stolen vehicles. from the town's official harbour.Those landing-stages are con- Costa Marques when repression was stepped up in Bolivia and (7) The UMOPARs are part of the Bolivian armed centrated along a 20km stretch of river bank,both upstream and the UMOPARs began to destroy secret airstrips, discover labora- forces.They specialise in the repression of drug traf- downstream from Costa Marquès.They are near settlers' roads, tories and control the main river towns from about 1992-93 on. ficking and are trained and advised by officials be- tracks and paths opened up in the district when the BR 429 high- The UMOPARs(7) were well equipped with, among other things, longing to the US Drug Enforcement Agency.They are known as "leopardos" in Brazil because of their way was built and a wave of colonists poured in.Most of the land- powerful motorboats which they used to patrol the rivers (the camouflage dress (and because the word sounds ing-stages can be reached from the BR 429 highway without it Brazilian police feared them,and their relations with the Brazilian nice), and sometimes as "piranhas". being necessary to go through the centre of Costa Marquès,and authorities were often conflictual). According to the police, it is

FORMER NEXT 52 Chapter 4 these immigrant Bolivians who are responsible for most of the - And then they travel down to Costa Marques... present transit of cocaine through Costa Marquès: - Or else they come down the Guaporé to take the Cautàrio river... Because by entering the Cautàrio they can go up as far as - (...) When we were working in Costa Marques in 1988 and the BR 429: there's a by-road [a settlers' road] which joins the 1989,there weren't yet any Bolivians who had settled here.At the 33km point on the BR 429, and from there they can continue by time, they were mules who came through to go and make their car towards Cacoal, Alvorada...What makes things much easier purchases in Bolivia. Now, after there had been a serious crack- for them is the fact that on this road which goes towards Ji down in Bolivia, the Bolivians withdrew to the Costa Marquès Parana,there are lots of by-roads they know well,and they move area, as they knew there was no repression here. from one district to another without taking the official BR. - So they arrived not so long ago? - Are there no checkpoints? - Not long ago.Some of them settled here less than two years - No checkpoints. ago... - And didn't you say that these Bolivians buy lots of apart- - Did they come from San Ramon? ment blocks and land here? - San Ramon.They had already been arrested, and many of - Yes.They really are buying, they're in the process of taking them were wanted by the Bolivian police.The people who have control of Costa Marquès:they're buying everything round here, settled in Costa Marquès are fugitives from Bolivia. They have buildings, fazendas, houses. They're taking the lot. In fact they made Costa Marquès, on the Brazilian side, their base because want something:they want to set up a base here so they can stay there is a law that prevents them from being deported:they take for good. For example, Pula (...) already has his villa, completely advantage of that and use the municipality as a drug trafficking surrounded by walls there,as you have seen.All that's missing are base.They've hardly been here for two years, but all the traffick- sentry boxes and watchtowers.Now a guy who has invested like ers know each other. They may be working for various networks, that in Costa Marques hasn't done so for no reason: it means he but as they have settled here in Costa Marques they help each really wants to settle permanently. other and avoid clashing with each other. If a friend goes to see - But apart from the houses? Pula and says, for example: "Tell me, I need 20 kilos, or 30 kilos," - They buy fazendas complete with cattle and tractors.They and Pula doesn't have them,then he will go to someone else and buy everything.When the money dried up,the Brazilians all felt find enough to sell. Because it is merchandise, they borrow, give obliged to do something else, to set up a different way of life. back and pay,"sell me that"...That's how they are organised here So people have been selling their land, so they can start again to make money: they can't clash with each other within the mu- with another way of life.They are forced to do that. But not the nicipality, otherwise they would attract attention.They want to Bolivians. They buy everything, when everyone knows they keep the lowest possible profile here. have no activity, no work, in Costa Marquès. No store or any- - But now that it is no longer easy to go via Orquilla, on the thing.But they know what they're doing.If they remained here Machupo, what do the traffickers do? as humble and poor people, one day or other they would be - When they take a voadeira, towards San Ramon or San bound to be kicked out of here. But now, when you've got rich Joaquim, or when they come back to Costa Marquès with co- people who have already settled down,it's hard to get at them. caine,they have to go via Orquilla,in front of the naval base of the It's harder to get at a person like that, even if he is living round Bolivian police there,of the "piranhas".So 500-600 metres before here illegally, if he has money...That's already a more difficult the landing-stage — the river twists and turns a lot — they moor problem... their boat.Two or three of them go ashore with the cocaine and take a land route.Then the voadeira passes the base, they get The role of Costa Marques and its history in cocaine trading checked by the "piranhas", the leopards, and as there is nothing seems to be rather straightforward: in the boat,they continue on their journey.A little farther on,they pick up the others, who have come by a land route with the co- 1. From the start, geographically located between caine. Bolivian sellers and buyers from the rest of Brazil and abroad,the

FORMER NEXT 53 Chapter 4 town initially benefited from the fact that Bolivian sellers came region,who came from the BR 364 and other States in Brazil,nev- to spend their narco-revenues in the stores of Costa Marques ertheless continued operating. They were able to use secret (1985-1990). airstrips on fazendas like Campo Verde,a few hundred metres upstream from Costa Marques, Ilha das Flores, on the edge of the 2. But most of the capital was not invested in Costa municipality of Alta Floresta, guarded by well-armed capangas, Marques, and when Bolivian sellers began to exchange their co- Vale du Rio Mequens,Monte Cristo and others again near the San caine for vehicles and other valuables stolen in Brazil, or for Francisco river,etc.They all had airstrips and belonged to impor- goods illegally exported, the town's retail and financial activity tant figures (rumour had it that they were big businessmen and was abruptly ruined. sometimes public figures) who used their estates for the transit or storage of cocaine imported from Bolivia. One assumes that 3.The "transcoca" changed nothing:Costa Marques once they are currently following the general trend in the region, again became a simple transit point where buyers from the inte- which is to import base paste and refine it on their own ground. rior of Brazil had a chance to meet representatives of their Bolivian However that may be, these big traffickers operate without nec- suppliers, who had in many cases themselves come from Bolivia essarily maintaining any significant links with the inhabitants of (1990-1994).The retailers and more generally all those who had Costa Marques. benefited from the manna of Bolivian narco-dollars had to think about either moving into a different kind of activity or leaving. Guajara Mirim 4.Then there came the UMOPARs' crackdown in Bolivia, which triggered a wave of Bolivian immigration (several hundred The effects of cocaine trading on the economy of Guajara people moved into the small town), a significant proportion of Mirim have a number of points in common with what hap- whom were involved in cocaine trafficking (1994-1996). pened in Costa Marques. Here too, over the same period, there was a flurry of business activity resulting from the fact that At the time of my investigations,however,the use that the im- neighbouring Bolivian traffickers and their clienteles spent migrant Bolivians made of their income injected hardly any new their illegal income in Brazilian stores.That peak of activity was life into the formerly big wholesale business: the biggest traffick- followed by a slump of similar proportions when cash transac- ers bought property from Brazilians who had abandoned the idea tions were superseded by barter... But the history of Guajara of moving into a new type of activity on the spot,and they tended Mirim also presents important characteristics of its own. to invest the rest of their capital in Bolivia. Most buyers still came Guajara Mirim(8) is larger and has a more powerful elite than from towns along the BR, and re-exported their cocaine to the Costa Marques (indeed, Costa Marquès's elite was often made south, the coast or the international market.The capital of these up of local representatives of leading Guajara Mirim retailers), big buyers was partly invested in their own towns along the BR and investments of narco-dollars,particularly in property,were 364, Ji Parana, Cacoal, Ariquemès and Vilhena, or elsewhere in the much larger — even though, as in Costa Marques, the logic of urban centres of the south,but in any case not in Costa Marquès... trafficking tended to reduce the town to its simple function as As for Brazilian traffickers living in Costa Marquès, they operated a transit corridor.The veritable "explosion" of cocaine money at more modestly, since they worked only on the commercial seg- regional level took place farther down, on the BR 364, and in ment linking the border with towns along the BR 364.They had particular,as regards Guajara Mirim,in Porte Velho.Unlike Costa (8) Guajara Mirim,which is located on the right bank hardly any direct access to the lucrative markets of the coast and Marquès, and right from the beginning of the growth in illegal of the Guaporé river in Brazil, stands opposite its southern Brazil: their powerful clients on the BR stood between trading during the first half of the 1980s,Guajara Mirim saw the Bolivian twin town,Guayaramerim,on the left bank them and Sao Paulo,Rio de Janeiro,Bahia,etc. rise of a family of traffickers who, while not controlling all the on the other side of the border. It takes only a few minutes to cross the river by voadeira,and there has town's cocaine supplies, nevertheless deeply influenced the always been a flourishing trade between the two Not far from Costa Marques, representatives of the big net- structure of local legal and illegal economic activity, by build- towns. works that had been set up more than ten years previously in the ing up a clientele in every social class (trade, industry and de-

FORMER NEXT 54 Chapter 4 prived milieux). Guajara Mirim was the first case I came across the 1980s.She had difficulty in driving and hired a chauffeur af- since starting my investigations in Mato Grosso of a blatant ter her first accident. But I have not counted the number of power strategy based on a clientelist redistribution of revenues cars... All this property was bought through third parties, usu- from illegal trading, and on the implementation of brutal and ally members of the family: it was one of Nereu's uncles who autocratic forms of social control. I am referring to Nereu bought the petrol station from the prefect, Isaac Benesby; his Machado de Lima and his closest relatives. sister bought the Do Mali supermarket, etc.This list of riches, which has been summarily put together here on the basis of various pieces of evidence (interviews and judicial and police 1980-1986: Nereu Machado de Lima documents), is not exhaustive: on top of capital possibly invested on the financial market, mention would also have to be The Machado de Lima family arrived in Guajara Mirim in the made of the mass of wealth — which is difficult to quantify — 1970s. Dom Gérard Verdier, bishop of Guajara Mirim, remem- offered in the form of various gifts aimed at maintaining or en- bers coming across them when they arrived in southern larging the Machado de Limas' clientele.For example,they gave Rondônia as poverty-stricken migrants from Parana on a boat a car to a military policeman. They also offered to donate that put ashore on one of the banks of the Guaporé, upstream money to the diocese so the cathedral's stained-glass windows from Costa Marques.The family,who were very Catholic,settled could be restored (the offer was firmly turned down by Dom in the port of Guajara Mirim, where they lived modestly until Gérard Verdier).On top of classic clientelist strategies designed the end of the 1970s. Nereu, the most important of the three to win over the public — or moral — authorities and thus coopt Machado sons that were to become traffickers, worked in the or neutralise them, mention should lastly be made of the char- harbour of Guajara Mirim, where he helped to manoeuvre the ity received by the poorest sections of the population: at that barge that ferried people across the river. time,it was said that everyone knew that if they visited Nereu's father at his office in Guajara Mirim harbour they would be lis- Five or six years later, the family owned not only the barge it- tened to attentively and possibly receive help to find a job or self,but a local navigation company (the voadeiras that served to get out of a financial,family or professional difficulty."Nereu al- transport passengers to Guayaramerim, in Bolivia, a sand-dredg- ways helps those in need," a taxi-driver told a journalist(9),"he ing company (Mineraçào Paranaense), which enjoyed a local gives jobs — and good jobs at that — to those who are looking monopoly in civil construction,a shipbuilding company (Estaletro for work." Money was paid into charities,and at least one school Guaycurus),a river navigation company (Navegaçào Colombo Ind. in Guajara Mirim even today still bears the name of the charita- Com. Ltda) which carried freight between Porto Velho and ble trafficker. Manaus, a supermarket in Guajara Mirim, fazendas in the district complete with cattle and airstrips, about 2,000 hectares of build- The image left by Machado de Lima in Guajara Mirim is full ing land in the town, several fazendas around Guajara Mirim, but of contrasts,combining as is usual in such circumstances a kind also at Vilhena and abroad (one in Colombia, the other in of fascination tinged with fear of a man who,as everyone knew, Paraguay,each with an airstrip),a large villa in Guajara Mirim and was quick to murder,or to arrange the murder of,those who got another even more luxurious villa in Manaus,a petrol station,var- in the way of his projects.When he died in 1986, his family con- ious properties in the region and in Manaus, four aircraft, includ- tacted the bishop by radio while he was on a tour of the river. ing a twin-engined plane, and even a mid-river island ("Nereu The bishop put his foot down and refused to allow the cathedral Island") halfway between Brazil and Bolivia, between Guajara to be used for his funeral: "Nereu did nothing during his life to Mirim and Guayaramerim, where Nereu Machado de Lima deserve a cathedral funeral," he said.A huge crowd nevertheless brought in some guards and a few head of cattle,etc. attended his funeral, as "he had given a lot of money to a lot of people". People still remember how Nereu's mother, who had once (9) Fatos, December 2, 1985. been destitute,drove around in a luxury car at the beginning of

FORMER NEXT 55 Chapter 4 The formation of Nereu's network channel.When he had raised enough capital to launch his business, he went ahead. After having been a prisoner, he went to Civil police in Guajara Mirim tell the story: Bolivia where he already had contacts, and he trafficked quite naturally. - At the time when trafficking got under way in Guajara Mirim, - But did he work on a large scale? at the beginning of the 1980s, when Nereu started to be talked - He had his fazendas, which had airstrips on which planes about, there were even federal police who were accomplices of could land. And planes came down to the region of Guajara, the traffickers. where there were several fazenda airstrips that belonged to him. - Were they small traffickers? At Iata, over there behind us, there was one at about kilometre - There were mules, people who carry... But as for the people 14. There was an airstrip there. And right opposite Mr Brito's involved in heavy trafficking (pesada) as such, it was Nereu who house there was also an airstrip. created the system. And he left behind a kind of "octopus" with - (another policeman) At Lucindo's seringal too, there was an a lot of "tentacles". And when he died, other people who had airstrip,near the Pacass Nova.That seringal had an airstrip which worked with him created other octopuses and hired other peo- helped the trafficking... Later on, during the period when Nereu ple to work with them... was a wanted man in Brazil, he spent a long time hidden there. - But Nereu was originally from a poor background,wasn't he? And he had his own men, an armed group. - Nereu was a poor guy. He worked on the barge that ferried - The armed group was to protect... cars to Bolivia, and he was a navvy (atractador) on the barge. He - To protect the airstrips. No one could get anywhere near had nothing. those things. For example, at that time, the federal police knew - (another policeman) But after that he ended up buying the about them.When they saw a plane land there,near the fazenda barge.(...) I know he spent some time in jail at the beginning,but of kilometre 14, they could see it very well. But no one went out then he escaped. Indeed, he even killed the guy who escaped there,it was guarded by men on patrol and sentries.And it would with him.They escaped on a small boat (Santo Antonio is an is- all happen very quickly, because they didn't hang around: the land on the Madeira river, upstream from Porto Velho), and he plane arrived, they unloaded and loaded what was needed and killed the guy.They say that the boat was unsafe for two people, off it went.What could we do? as it could capsize, and that that's why Nereu knocked out the guy, who fell into the water. The fellow who escaped with him There is no lack of information on how the Machado de Lima was found dead. family built up their clientelist system in Brazil.On the other hand, - And did Nereu go to Bolivia? it was much harder,in Guajara Mirim and elsewhere,to obtain re- - No,he went to Porto Velho.People there helped him to hide, liable and corroborative information about what happened at an to find a place where he wouldn't have any problems, until a earlier stage of the selling process, in Bolivia.A Bolivian newspa- means could be found to enable him to escape. per,El Deber (September 22,1991) gives some information about - Did he then flee to Bolivia? the initial formation of Nereu Machado de Lima's network, and - Yes he did.That's when he went to Bolivia.He then began to emphasises the decisive role played by Bolivian army officers in work with "avises" (mules).He was in charge of heavy trafficking, the setting up of what the journalist calls the "Mamoré Cartel": and other people worked with him... - (another policeman) Nereu began those activities when he " (...) Lieutenant Galdos was part of the group,and bought an was working on the barge. Major trafficking has its support net- estate in the neighbourhood of Puerto Villaruel, officially to ex- works,you know.Today in Guajara,there are people who use the tract timber from it.In fact,he recovered a large proportion of the official airport, and those who use voadeiras, the pilots of voad- drugs and later sold it to the Chaves family in Trinidad, with the eiras, and there are also those who use the barge. As Nereu capital of Oswaldo Justiniano and Alberto Letelier.Those officers worked on the barge at the time, he already knew some net- had a quarrel with the men who were buying the drugs for the works, and I think that from that moment on he already had a Chaves.

FORMER NEXT 56 Chapter 4 At that time, officers Letelier and Justiniano contacted Nereu base paste from "Roberto Suarez's son".The diversity and mobil- Machicado (sic) de Lima (a Brazilian pistoleiro)(...).With the money ity of these networks of major local trafficking could corroborate from those transactions,Machicado (sic) de Lima began to expand the claim,frequently heard locally,that on occasion Nereu nego- his activities and became a direct buyer. Together with Alcides tiated directly with the most conspicuous, if not the biggest, of Guardia, he bought drugs from officers who took it in military the Bolivian capos, Roberto Suarez (the man who publicly sug- tankers to Letelier's estate, or to the estates of Humberto Riveira, gested to Ronald Reagan that he (Suarez) should pay off Bolivia's David Callau and others (...). foreign debt).

The "Mamoré Cartel" had mixed fortunes (rumo). Most of its members pulled out of the business, often because of disputes Populist traffickers between civilians and army officers. Soon, the only people re- and respectable traffickers maining were Justiniano, the officer ostensibly in charge of the group, who worked with Nereu's brother, Sanclair Machado de Nereu Machado de Lima was far from being the only Lima, after Nereu's death. Sanclair, under the cover of several Brazilian trafficker in Guajara Mirim to have had business deal- companies in Brazil, remained in direct contact with Justiniano, ings with the above-mentioned persons. The innovation he officially about the building of boats for the army (probably on made lay rather in the fact that,with the help of his access to ma- behalf of the Estaleira Guycurus shipyards,which were owned by jor illegal trading (via wholesale suppliers and buyers),he intro- the Machado de Lima family in Guajara Mirim). duced new practices into the local cocaine economy.At the beginning of the 1980s, in addition to mules and occasional small Many other Bolivian army officers were mentioned in the ar- traffickers, the big traffickers of Guajara Mirim carried out their ticle.The main point is simply that Nereu seems to have indeed transactions discreetly. As everywhere else, many of them had been the henchman of Bolivian traffickers at the beginning of his originally gone into the business through the illegal export of exile.He was probably an impressive bodyguard,as he was soon precursors, ether and acetone (which was not the case with contacted by trafficking army officers who wanted to set up a Nereu); some of them restricted themselves to that area of ac- new network through which they could sell their cocaine abroad, tivity, which was highly profitable in itself, without exposing and thus break free from the constraints imposed by the Chaves themselves to the risk of importing cocaine.Others,such as Isaac family.When judicial investigation documents (Federal Police in Newton, a former deputy of Rondônia State and a member of a Porto Velho) are cross-checked with interviews, it seems likely local elite trading family, brought back cocaine (Newton's job that Nereu Machado de Lima then worked in close association was to buy chemical products in the industrial regions of central with Alcides Guardia,a Bolivian trafficker in Guayaramerim,who and southern Brazil on behalf of Marcilon Braga de Carvalho,but owned not only six aircraft (including a DC3), but refining labo- he also got caught with 140 kilos of cocaine when he was mak- ratories near the towns of Montelivano and Apolo in Bolivia,and ing a delivery in São Paulo).And yet the increasing wealth of lo- who was in close contact with a Colombian, Carlos Medrazza, a cal traffickers, when they came from local trading elites, took resident of Montecristo,in the Brazilian State of Amazonas,where place in a rather unobtrusive and respectable atmosphere, and a fazenda was used as a transit point for the export of cocaine to did not involve any unseemly local investment or ostentatious Colombia (he also used the fazenda of the Brazilian Paulo populist hand-outs. Nereu, who came from a poorer back- Matarazzo,in São Paulo,as a transit point for international export ground, disrupted the peaceful machinery of local illegal via southern Brazil,as well as a Brazilian fazenda near Vilhena,for money-making: his exports to Rio de Janeiro; the pilot Rubens, a close friend of Nereu, did much of the transporting himself and on occasion - Under his control (or under the control of members of his flew back with ether and acetone that had been loaded at family who had stayed in Guajara Mirim), he opened up the Cutaba etc.). In 1987, one of Alcides Guardia's planes went miss- wholesale drug market to a large number of people who had ing in the forest when it was about to pick up a consignment of previously had little access to it.

FORMER NEXT 57 Chapter 4 - Within a few years he had built up a traditional clientelist they might denounce him,and that he had other far more lucra- system, not only by neutralising the authorities through a mix- tive business in Santa Ana, San Joaquim, Magdalena and Santa ture of charm, corruption, cooptation and intimidation(10), but by Cruz "where the money came from" (written evidence). investing some of his drug money in spectacular local property investments and making lavish paternalistic hand-outs with no The dispute between Aristeu Batista dos Santos and the strings attached, which guaranteed that the more deprived sec- Machado de Lima family was probably motivated by the desire tions of the population would listen to and support him. of a well-established trafficker to remind Nereu of "the rule" of discretion practised by respectable traffickers. The public ex- A prominent retailer,who may himself have been a trafficker, change between the two traffickers is worth quoting here: confided anonymously in the journalist from Fatos: "Nereu made a blunder when he bought up everything that - (Nereu's father) "It's Aristeu Batista dos Santos, owner of the he could lay his hands on, as it drew attention to him. If he had Guarajus supermarket and of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida ship- acted like the others,by investing the money elsewhere,he could ping company, who has been firing insults at my family. He came be making more money than he's now making." here at the same time as we did.He went into shipping at the same time as we did. I think he can't bear to see our family expand so A taxi driver confirmed this: much.That's why he thought up this story of cocaine.But cocaine has nothing to do with it. I don't even know what all this cocaine "Nereu? He didn't know how to play like a man (fazer a jogada business is about.It's (dor de cotovelo mesmo). dos homens).The big, powerful guys always did everything they could not to draw attention to the town.That's why they weren't - (Aristeu) "I'm not jealous of the Machado de Limas. I pity interested in bringing progress here.Guajara Mirim has no night them. One son in jail and the other on the run... How could I be life and it's not (à toa),nor even a (meretricio) area.Don't draw at- jealous of people like that? We had a dispute with them some tention to the place: that was the rule. Nereu broke the rule. He time ago, but it wasn't because I invented anything about their brought progress, opened stores, and boosted the river trade life,as I don't need to invent.The authorities know very well what with Guayaramerim with his shipping company.He became a re- goes on here in Guajara Mirim"(11). ally big guy." Able as he was to rely on unlimited quantities of illegal goods, The Machado de Lima family's meteoric rise did not fail to and to have guaranteed and diversified outlets in Brazil as well as raise eyebrows among the elites who had to face unfair compe- on the international market, Nereu Machado de Lima encour- tition from the Machados not only on the legal market, but also aged a large number of people who had up to then been ex- (10) Sanclair Hachado de Lima was arrested by the within the local community of traffickers.The two circles in fact cluded from the illegal market to enter it by employing them as federal police of Porto Velho in November 1985. partly overlapped each other, and it may be wondered what well-paid middlemen or transporters.The Machado de Lima fam- "Shortly after his arrest", the property developer prompted a retailer like Aristeu Batista dos Santos to get involved ily then formed a social, financial and, de facto, political force in Vitachi told the newspaper Fatos (December 2,1985), in a violent public dispute with Nereu's father in 1985: Batista Guajara Mirim that was extremely embarrassing not only for the "when Sanclair was being held at the federal police sta- owned a supermarket and a shipping company in Guajara Mirim, elites and the legal authorities,who rejected or feared it,but also tion here in Guajara Mirim, Peres became infuriated and telephoned the federal police commissioner de- so he was a direct competitor of the Machado de Lima family — for the community of ordinary traffickers, who had a different manding his brother's release.That same day,several but over a period of 15 years the same Batista had also been un- project. A Bolivian officer gave his view on this to the journalist capangas could be seen loitering in the vicinity of the able to shake off a strong and persistent rumour that accused on Fatos (idem): federal police station,all of them very well armed.It got him of being a big drug trafficker himself.It was none other than to the point where the commissioner had to ask for help Batista, at exactly the same time (December 10, 1985), who paid "Here the axiom that "every cocaineiro is a retailer" — which from the military police,as their lives were in danger." (11) Fatos, December 2, 1985.The journalist seemed off his seringueiros in the upper Guaporé in dollars. He was ac- doesn't mean that every retailer is a cocaineiro — is true.You can unaware,or at least he does not mention the fact,that companied by Carlos Batista dos Santos, who said that he was be certain that all the powerful people here (in Guayaramerim in Aristeu Batista dos Santos was himself a trafficker. going to expel his seringueiros from Guajara Mirim for fear that Bolivia) are part of the mafia.Nereu is just a laranja, a guy who is

FORMER NEXT 58 Chapter 4 used as a bait, or a guinea pig.The big guys in Guajara (Guajara that in the end it was just money laundering, you see.The mo- Mirim in Brazil) are afraid he might be a second Tomaso Buscetta. ment drug trafficking stopped, everything stopped, and every- They're afraid that if he's caught by the police he might spill the one was ruined. beans and shop everyone.That's why they want to get him before the police and the law courts do." - (another policeman) In Nereu's time, these people bought fazendas,they bought all sorts of things in all sorts of places.After The present mayor of Guajara Mirim, a very powerful man his death, they sold all those fazendas to pay their bills. whose family has not,as far as I know,been suspected of any sig- - With Nereu,for example,they had money.It poured in all the nificant involvement in illegal trading,explains how he strove to time from drug trafficking, it kept on pouring in without stop- resist the Machado de Limas' clientelist charm offensive: ping.They bought all sorts of things.When he died and drug trafficking stopped for them, they had to start selling.They sold off - (15) Nereu's family had a monopoly in sand.All the sand that their heritage.They sold the fazendas...and I don't know what... was extracted for building was theirs,and it's still theirs.So when - (another policeman) Houses,cars,planes — the Machado de you needed to buy some sand,for example,they would offer you Lima family had four aircraft. terms of payment. It's true they were the only company that - In the end,the Machado de Limas have remained here with dredged up sand from the river — I'm just giving you an exam- the shipping company,the sand-dredging business for building, ple, of course — so we had to offer to... No, I tried to pay for it in they can manage with that.Otherwise, the rest has all been sold cash.I made a principle of not getting into debt or being hock to by them.But there's the supermarket too... people like that: I would buy and pay straight away, on the nail. That said,I was unhappy about those facilities...because we knew Meanwhile, as was mentioned by the policemen, the other they were in that line of business, of course (in cocaine traffick- members of the family,who had never been more than the priv- ing).What a fortune they had.You should have seen the lorries ileged "first customers" of the Nereu system and owners of an in- they had.But you were in hock.It was no good saying you weren't heritance made out in their name (nothing was in the name of going to buy from this or that person, otherwise you ended up Nereu himself), sold everything they could and today, as honor- getting involved anyway, because they had a monopoly. able citizens of Guajara Mirim, they are comfortably well off (as well as enjoying income from the companies they still run).The But the power of the Machado de Limas was mostly invested rest of the "secondary" clientele was abandoned. Many employ- in the person of Nereu Machado de Lima,who was determined to ees lost their jobs in the many firms,stores and fazendas that had mastermind and control the market in which he had got so many been mere front companies,or whose acquisition had been dic- people involved,from Guajara Mirim and elsewhere.He prevented tated by the particular requirements of trafficking (fazendas with people from getting a foothold in the market by imposing him- airstrips, transit bases and so on). Many of those in hock to the self as the sole supplier of his own trafficking clientele,and he also Machado de Limas,who had managed to set up a small business blocked the other end of the market by maintaining exclusive with money the latter had lent them, and whose firm remained control of his international outlets.When Nereu died, the whole shaky and dependent on an illegal source of wealth,were ruined clientelist system he had built up in Guajara Mirim began to fall or had to sell up. Lastly, of course, the whole population of mid- apart,excepting his close relatives.Policemen remember: dlemen who had become integrated into trafficking itself became "disorientated", as the police put it: they had lost the man - When Nereu died, many people were disorientated. They who pointed them in the right direction, the only man who had began to clash with each other, to separate from each other... the resources and the credit to do so. One would probably also There were those people in Guajara who ran the shipyards, for need to include, among the "disorientated", the representatives example.Today, they're still in Guajara but destitute (lascado da of the legal authorities and elites,who compromised themselves vida), they've got nothing left.Those people worked with Nereu with Nereu's clientele,those who had banked on the stability,vi- at the time,and it's easy to see from what happened afterwards ability and durability of his project.

FORMER NEXT 59 Chapter 4 Cocaine sources became less reliable for Nereu's middlemen. - Simple smugglers of precursors, ether, acetone etc., who The structure of the rank and file of traffickers began to falter,and were remunerated in dollars,without importing or exporting co- internal disputes broke out within that population because of ri- caine. valries that had emerged when attempts were made to rebuild - Big retailers who restricted themselves to exchanging their networks and to operate them for the benefit of some but not legal goods for the revenues of Bolivian drug traffickers, accord- others.Some traffickers disbanded,while others,either out of in- ing to the model described in connection with Costa Marquès. experience or because they had been denounced by colleagues, Naturally the latter did not regard themselves, nor were they re- were arrested by the police. It may also be supposed that clien- garded by anyone, as law-breakers. telist pressure (charm offensives or death threats) eased up on institutions at that time. Nereu's clientelist edifice collapsed like Among those in the first category, in addition to Aristeu a house of cards after his death.But the fact remains that at that Batista dos Santos, who owned a supermarket and a shipping time Nereu durably opened up the illegal market for "a whole company in 1985, mention could be made of Messias, a former generation" of new traffickers,some of whom subsequently man- army corporal posted at Forte Principe da Beira, then at Costa aged, after breaking free from the Machado de Limas, to reor- Marquès, who began to amass his fortune at the same time. ganise and exploit for themselves, profitably and discreetly, the segment of illegal networks into which Nereu Machado de Lima - He was an army corporal, but had got rich as an owner of had originally introduced them. property. He had an incredible number of buildings in Guajara. When he separated from his first wife, he gave her a pile (monte) of buildings. He had to share them with his wife, and now he still The low-profile big traffickers owns a pile of buildings. He had a furniture and electrical goods store.He bought and paid in cash,he didn't owe anyone anything, Whereas Nereu, a big-hearted but violent and, on occasion, he had no obligations,nothing. murderous trafficker,regularly hit the regional and national head- - Is he the man you said owned 30% of the buildings in the lines,but at the same time remained extremely popular with a sec- centre of Guajara Mirim? tion of the destitute local population, the respectable trafficking - That right,it was him.As far as one can tell,he is now thought elite continued discreetly to thrive.It may be assumed that their re- to have given up trafficking.He earned a lot of money at the time action to his death was one of relief.Unfortunately,and inevitably, when cocaine was a seven-headed Hydra (bicha de sete cabeças). there is much less information about the other great fortunes that No one knew what it was, we just knew it came from trafficking. were amassed at that time in cocaine trading.The press mentioned So at that time he went into trafficking, then he pulled out of it. the cocaine trade virtually only in its crime reporting pages,in con- - (nother policeman) The army people carried out an investi- nection with petty urban trafficking,the arrest of mules or bloody gation and said to him: "Look, your wealth isn't compatible with shootouts between rival groups, but it almost never referred to what you earn.Take your wages and leave,or else we'll throw you large-scale regional trafficking. And with good reason, since the out." So he resigned and left the barracks, under pressure from people involved were often influential figures who had support in the army itself. Of course from his point of view, he didn't care a the regional media (when they did not own them themselves). shit about his job.He had the money.

Considerable fortunes were built up at the time of Nereu According to a Porte Velho public prosecutor (uromotor) who Machado de Lima thanks to the existence of cocaine trading,but used to work in Guajara Mirim,ex-corporal Messias now owns 83 here again,as in the case of Costa Marquès,it is important to dis- buildings in the centre of town (office blocks and houses), in- tinguish between the different ways wealth was accumulated. cluding the Jamaica Hotel, the finest hotel in town, buildings There were: housing several big banks, an import company and property in- - Retailers/drug traffickers proper,whatever the scale of their vestments carried out in Aracajù, his native town in Sergipe. activity.

FORMER NEXT 60 Chapter 4 People I spoke to in Guajara Mirim were prepared to be very 180 apartment blocks, buildings and villas in Guajara Mirim are forthcoming about the Machado de Limas.They also felt no em- probably owned by traffickers or former traffickers.Guajara Mirim barrassment about talking about Messias,about the owner of the is not a large town, and its centre, which consists of permanent Casa dos Redes,once a humble hammock vendor and now owner structures and is the centre of trading activities, is not very ex- of a luxurious 15-room "palace" in Guajara Mirim, about Oscar tensive. As these buildings are among the most presentable in Milao, who used to sell onions and now eats off gold crockery, or the town,it is understandable that civil servants who get posted about Maximiliano,who refines his cocaine in Brazil and is currently there find it hard to rent accommodation other than that be- preparing to buy fazendas in the region for cash as well as plan- longing to a trafficker. According to the public prosecutor (pro- ning to build a luxury hotel in Guajara Mirim...People were not em- motor) in Porto Velho,who gave me these figures,this is often the barrassed to broach such subjects because the rise of such traf- case with magistrates and prosecutors who are posted there fickers,who are very active today,was all the more blatant and os- temporarily(13). tentatious because they had started out with nothing(12). But no one talks with the same freedom about the fortunes of the old families, those who were already in a position of power when the Precursors illegal market got going,and who earned considerable fortunes by investing discreetly in it, fortunes which they invested elsewhere Illegal activity is not restricted to cocaine trafficking.Most of without seeming to turn their backs on their previous behaviour the major traffickers started out in the business by exporting in a way that might have shocked people locally.People are natu- chemical precursors such as ether, acetone, ammoniac, potas- rally all the more reluctant to talk about such fortunes because sium permanganate,etc.Their networks regularly combined the many of their owners have remained influential in every sphere of import of cocaine with the supply of precursors. But precursors local social,financial and institutional life. bought in Brazil were smuggled into Bolivia and sold to Bolivian manufacturers at well above the market price:the police reckon The Nagibs are one such family.They arrived in Guajara Mirim that capital invested in the purchase of such products had in- in the 1930s. Nagib personally owns a timber company, another creased fivefold by the time they were sold on. That already company that sells building equipment,as well as a large button- amounted to a considerable revenue in itself, which explains manufacturing factory in São Paulo, and some 60 buildings in why the market was able to constitute on its own an area of ac- Guajara Mirim (unlike Messias, Nagib had the reputation of be- tivity and capital accumulation independent from the import of (12) These names were freely mentioned in all the ing a very slow payer). Rumour has it that he built a 10-storey the finished product, and sometimes even unconnected with interviews,with both civilians and representatives of block in Beirut, Lebanon, where he had kept in contact with his the cocaine networks proper. Certain inhabitants of border judicial and police institutions.They also feature in family of origin...Nagib (like the other big families doing business towns like Guajara Mirim did not look the other way when such many legal documents.Oscar Milao and Maximiliano, who arrived on the market at a later date,are currently on the river,such as the Badres and the Benesbys) had a sales rep- lucrative opportunities turned up.There were cocaine produc- helping to train this "new generation" of traffickers, resentative in Costa Marquès at the time when Messias was traf- tion ingredients which were not classified among the banned which clearly includes many young men of good fam- ficking.The Meléms are not recent settlers either. Owners of the precursors, which were available on the Brazilian market and ily, whose "names they have blackened". A Guajara import company, Tunari, they also operate in Bolivia and own more difficult to come by in Bolivia,and which,perfectly legally, Mirim policeman admitted: "The oldest families in some 40 buildings in Guajara Mirim.No one doubts the origin of made certain retailers in Guajara Mirim very happy: one exam- Guajara do not get involved. It is true that some of them now have children who have become traffick- the finance that enabled them to build up such a considerable ple is the toilet paper that was used as a filter during the manu- ers, but this new generation already has a different local property portfolio. facture of the powder. It was said jokingly that during the peak attitude.They go and get involved,and blacken the years, from 1985-1990, Guajara Mirim sold enough toilet paper names of the traditional families.Some of them are It is worth noting that if one takes into consideration only to meet Bolivia's entire demand...The Bolivians would come in drug addicts, other traffickers, but they're in there, these three individuals, Messias, Melém and Nagib, without tak- voadeiras to the harbour, and set off back towards Beni or and even traditional families have been blackened because of that." ing into account local properties owned by other traffickers (the Mamoré with cubic metres of toilet paper that had been sold to (13)When doing my investigations in Guajara Mirim, Machado de Limas, Aristeu Batista dos Santos and many other them at the highest possible price.The retailers, whether they I myself stayed at a hotel owned by a trafficker. names mentioned in the course of the investigations),more than ran small general stores or owned supermarkets, had of course

FORMER NEXT 61 Chapter 4 no reason to turn their noses up at this legal little windfall.Paulo lorry arrives at a checkpoint,for example,but we can't check any- Gudim, a local storekeeper, apparently distinguished himself in thing as we don't know what it is.We check the tax docket, and this activity. they are cigarettes...But people sometimes say that there's ether, acetone and acid, in consignments of cigarettes. Legal retailers or users of chemical products, that is to say, concretely,pharmacists,garages selling batteries and all retailers - It is said that the smuggling of such products increases their where it was legal to stock sulphuric acid or ether,were subjected value fivefold.You just drive out of São Paulo and on to Bolivia, to the same temptation.In Guajara Mirim,people mention Paulo and you've earned five times what you put in. So there logically de Baterias, who, as his nickname suggests, ran a battery store must be some form of connivance with the Federal Tax office that and secretly sold sulphuric acid to Bolivian traffickers. carries out the check, with the people who inspect the consign- Pharmacists who knew their wholesalers well had little difficulty ment and affix the seals.And no one sees anything... in buying more than they were allowed to,and in secretly storing - (another policeman) A lorry turns up for example, one of their surplus until such time as they sold it to representatives of those lorries that carry cigarettes for export.The cigarettes leave Bolivian laboratories.The most spectacular case (there were oth- Brazil to go to Bolivia.The lorries arrive at a roadblock, and you ers that never came to light) concerned the Fialho family in 1991, can see that the lorry's axis is very low. It's very close to the who had long been established in the town. "But in this case it is ground.You can see from the weight that it cannot be carrying a the children, not the parents, who say it's nothing to do with them; consignment of cigarettes.But you only have a suspicion,there's it's the children, already another generation, who blacken their el- nothing to warrant taking the Federal Tax Office seals off. ders' name", a policeman said. - So you can't under any circumstances open the lorry. If you do, you're committing a crime. If you open it up and find some- However that may be, it should be remembered that the thing nice,you're covered (amparado),but if you do that without smuggling of precursors could itself constitute an area of capital being tipped off or without a good solid reason to open it up, accumulation independent of the cocaine trade proper. Groups then you're in trouble (ferrado). were able to buy produce in the industrial urban centres of - That means there must be accomplices... southern and central Brazil and sell them directly on to the - As far as we can analyse it...When the staff at the Federal Tax Bolivians, as long as they had contacts on the other side of the Office seal a vehicle like that, they must know what's inside it. border (which was particularly easy for the inhabitants of Guajara They look at the lorry... Mirim).Others supplied precursors to border middlemen,who in - Do they inspect it? turn sold them on to Bolivians without asking to be paid for their - That's their job,their duty.If they don't,they're guilty of neg- services in cocaine.A policemen insisted on this point,and men- ligence.They must check and inspect before putting on seals. tioned his suspicions that officials in the Federal Tax Office prob- - And the seals are affixed there, in Sao Paulo? ably acted as accomplices when large quantities of chemical - Yes, in São Paulo (...). products were transported by road:

- For example, they transport ether and acetone in a goods The rise and fall of a trade vehicle coming from São Paulo or other major centres in Brazil on its way to Bolivia. Now the lorries are sealed by Federal Tax offi- All the illegal forms of capital accumulation mentioned so far cials,and no one can open them up unless they have very strong — from Nereu Machado de Lima's misplaced clientelism to the suspicions.The lorries travel with seals on them and go to Bolivia smuggling of precursors and the discreet accumulation of re- with consignments of rice, cigarettes, export products... But no spectable traffickers, whether or not they belonged to old local one here,not even our inspector,can touch a Tax Office seal.The elites — were features of the 1980s. Such practices naturally fa- lorries can only be opened over there in Bolivia.It has happened cilitated the injection of illegal cash into the local economy, but very often here in Guajara, and it still happens today: a sealed they were not alone in affecting the situation in Guajara Mirim.

FORMER NEXT 62 Chapter 4 Trade in the town thrived extraordinarily at the time, as it then ing marketing structure, they closed down and left. Because at did in Costa Marquès, as we have seen.The shrewder major traf- that time a lot of people came here to open stores solely intend- fickers in Guajara perhaps avoided investing too ostentatiously ing to sell to the Bolivians. in the town. But Bolivian traffickers from Guayaramerim, Ribeiralta etc. came en masse to spend their narco-dollars in What with the narco-revenues of Guajara Mirim's Brazilian Guajara Mirim, just as those from San Ramon and San Joaquim traffickers and those of neighbouring Bolivians who came to did in Costa Marquès, 200km upstream. Isaac Benesby, the pre- spend huge amounts of money in the stores of the same town, sent mayor of Guajara Mirim, remembers: which were in a position to sell at high prices,Guajara Mirim must have been awash with a quite extraordinary volume of wealth in - The prosperous period lasted until 1990, I think. The the 1980s, compared with the money supply required by the Bolivians bought whatever they could find in Guajara Mirim.They small town's legal economic activity alone.The Brazilian retailers' bought beans, rice, television sets, everyone that came from the room for manoeuvre in selling goods at high prices to Bolivian south or was produced here. Retailers sold huge amounts of traffickers did not result purely from the fact that the latter were goods to the Bolivians. exceptionally affluent. The Brazilians retailers' advantage also - Were there a lot of dollars here? resided in the fact that their colleagues in Guayaramerim, in - A lot. Bolivia, were commercially isolated. The sale of manufactured - Where did the dollars come from? goods by Brazilian storekeepers to Bolivians at a high price was - No one knew where they came from...The Bolivians came a practice almost as old as the foundation of the two twin towns here,and they brought money with them;it wasn't the Brazilians — and existed well before cocaine trading appeared.The strate- who were the gangsters in this particular case.The origin of the gic advantage that Brazilian retailers enjoyed over their Bolivian money,the laboratories,they were all over there in Bolivia.Look, counterparts disappeared when Guayaramerim was in turn during that period, which ran from 1980 and earlier till about linked up to its own national road network via a practicable road 1990,the wealth that circulated in Guajara Mirim came here pre- at the end of the 1980s. Guayaramerim broke free from its com- cisely because there was that freedom in Bolivia;...They sent the mercial dependence on Guajara Mirim at a time when barter was (cocaine) through here, or elsewhere, directly to Colombia, and beginning to replace cash transactions on the cocaine market. they had a lot of money.They had money to buy up stocks,enor- The commercial decline of cocaine may have been accentuated mous quantities of sugar, wheat flour, oil, everything, in Guajara. by that phenomenon. Including manufactured products, as they say — refrigerators, furniture, all that was sold in huge quantities in Bolivia, whole But before the decline, unusual commercial practices ap- lorry loads of oil, toilet paper, barbed wire. Why? Because the peared on the Guajara Mirim market. As we have just seen, the wealth [narco-revenues] was on the other side (...).(...) Then came town contained a mixture of Bolivian and Brazilian traffickers,set- the phase when vehicles came through here, when Brazilian tlers and descendants of traditional families,some of whom had mules arrived,who carried the base paste.They would go and ne- millions of dollars to spend.These people faced retailers who,one gotiate in Bolivia, but they didn't take money there, they took imagines, must have been delighted to be able to sell, on a daily stolen vehicles.That's what is still going on even today, a large basis and at a very good price,tonnes of rice and beans,hundreds number of stolen vehicles come through Guajara Mirim — but of electric household appliances, tonnes of materials and ma- it's still at a reasonable level, there are lots of places where they chines for the building industry,dozens of cars and so on.But,as can cross the border. So trade began to decline, both in Guajara we have also seen,there were in addition a number of traffickers Mirim and in Costa Marquès. There was a slump, because the who themselves bought up businesses,so as to throw people off Bolivians no longer bought anything,in about 1990,there was al- the scent and legitimise the source of their exceptional income, most nothing left. As for the few retailers there were here, and without worrying about carefully running their new activity or who had come with the intention of selling, of opening their even about making money. Such operators, as long as they did stores to sell to the Bolivians, but who hadn't got a long-stand- not sell rubbish,could sell at any price they wished and thus un-

FORMER NEXT 63 Chapter 4 dercut the markets in sectors in which they had chosen to le- within the framework of a federal initiative that would guarantee galise their drug earnings... One also has to take into considera- them the concerted support of the Federal Police, the public tion the hyperinflation that was then raging in both Brazil and prosecutor's office and the financial institutions concerned(14). Bolivia, speculation and trafficking on the dollar exchange rate, the corruption of some local State representatives,and lastly the gold rush that peaked between 1986 and 1990 near Guajara Mirim. Under the effects of the drug economy, commercial and financial procedures were subject to spectacular distortions at the time.

Opposite the harbour of Guajara Mirim stands the imposing Federal Tax building, as it did throughout the period under consideration. Today its officials supervise the disembarkation of voadeiras bringing passengers from Bolivia and check the quotas of goods bought by sacoleiros and other Brazilian buyers who have come to take advantage of the free zone recently created in Guajara Mirim.What surprises the outside observer is that,at the centre of one of the main zones of cocaine transit between Bolivia and Brazil, in the heart of a town where most property is probably owned by operational traffickers, former traffickers or their heirs (not to speak of business capital and companies connected with public building works), the only manifest activity of the Federal Tax Office, despite the fact that everyone seems to know who is who, apparently concentrates on checking those who have gone shopping in the duty-free area and telling them they have bought one electric toy,doll or camera film more than the official purchase quota allows.

It looks very much as though even the most notorious traffickers, after investing considerable sums in the economy of Guajara Mirim, and before passing on their wealth to their descendants, had never been bothered by the Federal Tax Office. I was not able to investigate this facet of the problem directly. Always supposing that certain officials cared about assuming their local responsibilities,one can only imagine the level of pressure, offers of bribes and explicit or implicit threats that must (14)There have been established cases of corruption. have weighed down on any of them who wanted to impose the Worth mentioning is the implication of a Federal Tax law.The pressure would certainly be commensurate with the ex- official in the murder of a lorry-driver:the stolen lorry, traordinary scandal that any rigorous financial investigations which should have taken the barge from Guajara,was would have been bound to cause.Many magistrates are aware of going to be exchanged for cocaine in Bolivia. Such cases do not make it possible to pass judgment on the the gravity of the problem and feel that Federal Tax officials are circumstances under which the Federal Tax Office,or not in a position to assume their local responsibilities without indeed any other institution,intervenes in such cases. putting their career or life at risk, unless they are able to act

FORMER

64 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 One businessman has become the virtual master of a town of THE DRUG TRADE, some twenty thousand inhabitants on the banks of the Tarauacá THE BLACK ECONOMY in just over ten years.He owns an air taxi company (three aircraft), AND SOCIETY IN a drinks distribution business,a river transport company (barges), a coffee roasting factory,a network of filling stations,cattle farms, WESTERN AMAZONIA the main warehouses in the town and,besides being already the IN BRAZIL owner of a bar, he has just acquired further plots of land in the Roberto Araújo town, the better to launch himself in the catering business. As in the neighbouring state of Rondônia, trade in Acre has benefited from income from the cocaine trade — initially, in the towns near the border with Bolivia, like Brasiléia and Plácido de Castro, which were the first to benefit from the largesse of Bolivians prepared to waste the gains obtained across the bor- Introduction der through illegal exports.Many Brazilian businesspeople,however, took a further step by becoming involved in illegal opera- Stretching from the sources of the River Javari in the north- tions themselves. west to the banks of the Abunã in the south-east, the federate state of Acre (whose capital is Rio Branco) is situated in the west- Smuggling of precursors was not the initial stage in local busi- ernmost part of Brazil between Bolivia and Peru.Following a mas- nesspeople’s gradual involvement in illegality, as it was in sive flight from the land since the 1970s,the population has been Rondônia. Distribution problems resulting from territorial isola- distributed among the urban centres along these routes with a tion probably explain the lack of laboratories in Acre. But those massive concentration in the southern regions of the state, near difficulties also make the state attractive for transporting freebase Rio Branco.The effects of urban growth resulting from rural exo- from Peru to Colombian laboratories (four years ago,Peru was still dus are manifest everywhere(1), but two major regional concen- the largest producer of freebase,but it has never been renowned trations can be identified in the state: a densely populated area for its production of cocaine chlorohydrate).From the early 1980s in the south,served by recent road links and so better integrated onwards, pump attendants in small airports subject to little con- with the national economy,like the Acre valley;and a less densely trol by the authorities were given orders from their bosses to fill populated area in the north which, because of its relative isola- up planes whose passengers would pay cash, in dollars, and not tion,is more dependent on the old river routes used for the rub- to ask too many questions.With the complicity of their owners, ber trade. private landing strips on old rubber plantations soon became so many staging-posts for illegal journeys.By the end of the decade, These population movements, consisting mainly of former the cocaine trade was even attracting people with cash who, seringueiros, are a result of the decline in rubber extraction and, while not directly involved, became associated with it to finance more generally, of an agricultural sector that has not been re- possible illegal operations organized by acquaintances:members placed by any industrial growth. At the same time, since the of the professions,senior civil servants,etc. 1980s the service sector has prospered to a degree that would be difficult to ascribe to the relative growth of that sector alone. In widely varying forms according to investors’ degree of in- (1) IBGE estimates (1996) a total population of While some employers have been unable to maintain their for- volvement and the source of the capital invested, revenue from 483,593, 47.3% of whom live in Rio Branco alone. est estates and businesses in the towns,others have shown a re- cocaine became an alternative source of income in Acre, given 11.7% (56,705 inhabitants) of the population of Acre live in the second largest town, Cruzeiro do Sul, fol- markable capacity for investment.They have diversified their ac- the crisis in the rubber industry.The development of the illegal lowed by Tarauacá with 4.8% (23,715) and Sena tivities and found themselves at the head of large groups of com- economy seems to have accompanied general population move- Madureira with 4.8% (23,330). panies which enable them to control the major supply networks. ments, as the effects of the trade (accumulation of capital, rev-

NEXT 65 Chapter 5 enue going into consumption or investment on the spot) now who have been murdered or have disappeared seems to prove the extend far more widely in the cities where people who have left existence of a ‘death squad’ in the capital’s police stations, with the border regions are concentrated. implicit or even open support of various police officers.Our sources in the police say there is a "black list" of names of criminals con- Acre has not, however, experienced the growth associated demned to die, referred to as so-and-so or so-and-so, etc., a total of with recent colonisation which initially led to a general strength- more than thirty probable victims of the extermination groups (sic). ening of the position of small farms and agriculture-related pro- … Despite emphatic denials by the Secretary for Security and the duction in Rondônia and eastern Amazonia.The purchase of cof- Chief Superintendent, the increasing number of complaints of tor- fee harvests in Rondônia may be partly financed by illegal rev- ture and summary executions shows that negotiations are under enue (laundering) and thus be a social redistribution mechanism way behind the scenes among the police, who have taken it upon for the profits of the cocaine trade,as C.Geffray shows elsewhere themselves to tackle the root of the evil". (A Gazeta do Acre, in this issue.These redistributive effects are not felt to the same 29/11/1987). extent in Acre, especially in the southern regions of the state, where direct involvement in petty dealing in towns is,in the eyes The executioners do not make any real attempt to protect of a large section of the population, the only way of improving themselves through anonymity.Their strategy is not to eliminate their living conditions. As the local consumption of freebase offenders, trying to conceal the existence of their police "exter- gradually increases (mela smoked with tobacco), clashes be- mination group". On the contrary: until recently they were quite tween dealers bent on taking over and maintaining sales outlets open about what they were doing, enjoying the protection of is resulting in an exceptional increase in the number of murders people highly placed in the judicial and police apparatus. The in the capital. "key man" of the "death squads" in Acre is Hildebrando Pascoal, who was for a long time commander of the Military Police and who then became a deputy, first in the State Assembly, then in Local Cocaine Market the National Congress (Federal).He comes from a modest family, and Violence of Para-Police Groups but one with strong roots in the Acre valley and, like most of his brothers, made a career in the police. He is reputed to have a vi- A reputation as a killer may be seen in some life histories as a olent temperament and has been in trouble with the law since means of helping street dealers to establish themselves, since it 1983, when he narrowly escaped being found guilty of murder. demonstrates one’s aptitude for defending one’s territory against In a judgement handed down in October of that year,the judge, (2) In the late 1960s,the responsibility for state police rivals and is a guarantee of reliability as a receiver of the goods while not prepared to find H.Pascoal guilty "without further evi- forces was taken over by the military regime.The mil- to be sold. But this is never established simply as a result of con- dence", made a point of mentioning the particularly difficult cir- itary dictatorship mobilised them against certain radical leftist organisations in a crackdown which flict among petty dealers over the sharing-out of the market. In cumstances of the police investigation: soon made every political opponent a potential vic- fact,the role of police in the urban distribution of drugs is a strik- tim.Special commandos,known to use torture,phys- ing aspect of the social and political implications of the cocaine "The judicial investigation had enormous difficulties conducting ically eliminated prisoners with complete impunity. trade in the state. the police investigations,firstly because of lack of resources,but also This was widely denounced and was the subject of because of the great influence wielded locally by the families of the a number of studies of the dictatorships in Brazil and (2) Latin America.It had serious implications which were The action of "uniformed death squads" is symptomatic of accused… Every effort was made to conceal the truth from us. already visible at the time of the "democratic transi- this.It has resulted in a succession of murders in petty criminal Witnesses were produced who had no knowledge of the facts and tion",but whose extent was probably as yet barely re- circles in the suburbs of Rio Branco, attributed to the police. In lied shamelessly in their statements because they had been in- alised. No longer having the task of combating the 1987, a daily newspaper in the capital mentioned the elimina- structed not to tell the truth.Others chose to say nothing for fear of regime’s opponents,which no longer served any pur- tion of four crooks, identified only by their nicknames, who, reprisals". pose, some sections of the military police immediately embarked upon a "war against crime",using the since the previous day, had: same extra-legal methods regarded as essential for "been added to the list of people executed by the police or killed The "great social influence" of the accused is based on family the accomplishment of their mission. on the orders of one or other police officer.The succession of bandits networks deeply rooted in the police force.From trial to trial,one

FORMER NEXT 66 Chapter 5 notes these sorts of "exchanges of friendly services" among that were compromising for him. His networks include several prominent people,such as when a Secretary for Security came in Civil Police Commissioners who seize competitors’ drugs and person to request the surrender of H. Pascoal during a private drag out investigations into murders committed by the group. visit to the suspect’s family, without concerning himself about This enables them to appropriate (wholly or in part,and with ab- the political consequences of the gesture.Such exchanges reveal solute impunity) revenues from illegal activities and to impose the cronyism in the law enforcement sphere which guarantees conditions for the conduct of those activities for their own con- the impunity of certain individuals. venience.

"Those people, said one witness, all went to school together. The family’s financial prosperity is obvious: it is said that H. They’ve known one another since they were tiny.… So one day the Pascoal always runs off with the best lots at cattle auctions. His judge comes to see a certain Military Police officer to complain that wealth enables him to finance his political pretensions.Within his house has been burgled.The next day — surprise, surprise! — the police itself, he lends money at exorbitant rates of interest the burglar is found dead and the stolen goods are returned (to the which he deducts directly from police officers’ salaries. He uses owner).That’s how it works." the debts to apply pressure to obtain his subordinates’ political support.He is also alleged to have distributed money to some of The police perform other services,such as intimidating debtors, the hordes of electors who crowd around candidates in the run- for the authorities and prominent people,who are all the more in- up to elections — one person with a medical prescription, an- clined to ignore the "excesses" of their personal militia. In such a other with three months of unpaid invoices — in the hope of bal- context,where the forces of law and order are to a great extent in ancing a meagre family budget. It is said that during his second thrall to the interests of certain individuals, the connections be- election, outlets for the free distribution of sachets of freebase tween urban crime, drug dealing and police exactions have be- were set up for the town’s drug addicts in order to secure their come a constant in the life of Rio Branco.Giving evidence before a votes. Parliamentary Committee on Drug Trafficking,a former employee of H.Pascoal said he had heard the deputy order the execution of None of this is enough to explain Pascoal’s resounding elec- a street dealer who had invaded the territory of one of his pro- toral successes: he is the deputy with the biggest electoral ma- tégés.Furthermore: jority in both the State Assembly and the National Congress. Rather than attributing his success simply to his scattering "(According to the witness) several people involved in drug traf- largesse from his illegal activities during elections, the reasons ficking frequented Hildebrando’s house.Two of the deputy’s trusted are to be sought in his legitimacy in local society.He himself has dealers kept a check on the sales outlets,using a motorbike belong- never doubted the legitimacy of his practices, established se- ing to him.… Corporal Paulino and Sergeant Alex seized drugs from cretly and without the knowledge of the law. Accused by the dealers who invaded the areas controlled by Hildebrando who (ac- President of the Court of being responsible for the crimes com- cording to the witness) sold the drugs and used the proceeds to fi- mitted by the death squads, he claimed to be a victim of perse- nance his family’s political campaigns" (O Estado de São Paulo,30 cution by individuals who wanted to harm him because of his June 1999). role as protector of honest people from outlaws.

Through its criminal contacts and informers,the group of po- More than a year after his arrest and that of dozens of his ac- lice organized around H. Pascoal is thus able to control the co- complices,huge sections of public opinion in Rio Branco seem to caine market in the town.The deputy is also well-known for his agree with him.It is true that murders of criminals have declined influence in prisons:one word from him to the prison authorities since the downfall of the "death squads", but burglaries and is enough to speed up the release of a prisoner or change the hold-ups have increased significantly.The recrudescence of of- conditions of his sentence.He boasts of the indulgence of his sis- fences against property affects not only the middle classes and ter-in-law, a public prosecutor, with respect to certain law-suits local businesspeople terrified by the new impunity of petty

FORMER NEXT 67 Chapter 5 thugs, but is also, even especially, affecting poor people, who In such a context,large traders have considerable advantages. now,for example,have to pay a toll (pedagios) at some street cor- Traditionally in charge of organising the transport of hevea and ners. It is chorused that "this never happened in Hildebrando’s river freight, they not only possess the means of transport time". (barges, etc.), but also the commercial and even personal contacts which, on a larger scale, may prove useful for organising illegal transport. Cocaine routes are not, however, superimposed Illegal Networks and Social Control on rubber marketing networks, since there have been other in Northern Acre changes which have resulted in the diversification of the trade and its agents. Petrol and timber networks, for example, are par- The tendency of the press to talk about drug dealing and the ticularly representative of the metamorphoses that have oc- cruelty of the "death squads" as if they were one and the same curred, since the market price of these products is higher than masks a very important fact that needs to be remembered:violence that of rubber.When they are exploited illegally (embezzlement seems to have been stamped out in northern Acre, where the in- of subsidies for transporting petrol by illegal sale at the place of vestment of illegal capital and mechanisms for distributing illegal purchase; timber felling in protected areas, etc.), their attractive- revenue are greater.The medium-sized towns with populations of ness as sources of income increases still further.In the latter case, twenty to fifty thousand in the Juruá and Tarauacá valleys are still networks may benefit from various practices (such as the cor- the fiefs of old seringalista bosses who have exploited new oppor- ruption of civil servants,vetting of staff and procedures,etc.) that tunities to enrich themselves.Many of today’s large traders ran rub- are also employed in the drug trade. ber plantations in the 1980s.Whatever the circumstances of their initial contacts with cocaine exporters,the importance of old forest Links between some strategic networks (that vary from re- (3) H. Pascoal’s involvement in the drug trade is not paths for the transport of drugs is undeniable.Some routes — from gion to region) and the drug trade are,from this point of view,far confined to extortion. His properties are used for Peru to Cruzeiro do Sul via Paraná dos Mouras or across the border from fortuitous.The most striking example in Cruzeiro do Sul is loading and unloading drugs.His brother’s name ap- hills towards the sources of the Javari — are regularly used thanks probably Orly Cantarelli, former mayor of the town and close to pears in a 1996 Federal Police investigation. Sete to the cooperation of the local people, who act as guides or tem- Senator Olavo Pires before this major Rondônia trafficker was Bandeira Pascoal was mentioned as travelling to porary receivers of the goods. killed.Cantarelli had his first brush with the law in the mid-1980s Colombia in the company of Peruvian drug barons. A landing-strip belonging to him was sometimes when he was accused of keeping workers on his estate in the used by pilots working for these people. Supplying Networks based on family connections,cronyism or previous Upper Juruá in semi-slavery, and illegally felling timber in in- logistical support and providing cover for illegal op- contacts with small commercial suppliers in towns make it easy digenous reserves.Ten years later, when Cantarelli had become erations, Pascoal was probably also able to provide to smuggle small quantities of freebase to Cruzeiro do Sul. governor of the state, his personal secretary denounced the use local supplies at certain periods.The Drug Trafficking Sometimes this is done by Peruvian workers or peasants, who of his river transport company for carrying cocaine in oil cans.The CPI also brought out his association with inter-state criminal networks, in the same capacity as eminent come on to the Brazilian side of the border to sell a few hundred ex officio governor’s purchase in the United States of a Boeing persons in the Nordeste region, including a brother grams received, it would seem, by way of a salary or remunera- 727-200, illegally flown into Brazil with a cargo of undeclared of PC Farias,treasurer of ex-President Collor de Melo tion. Having buried the goods in the neighbourhood, they are electronic equipment on board through a sham company in Rio in the state of Alagoas.Be that as it may,Pascoal does given lodging by a local person for the time it takes the local boss de Janeiro, also intensified suspicion about the nature of his re- not seem to be a player on the national or interna- to do a deal with a buyer in town. lations with certain people in the entourage of a pilot and noto- tional trafficking scenes. (4) This strategy seems to have been successful rious trafficker arrested in 1994 for bringing 7.2 tons of cocaine since, at a time when many political personalities The recruitment of local people (as guides,boatmen,to build into the state of Tocantins. Finally, the governor was in the re- and businesspeople in the state were put in the hot landing-strips,etc.) may also provide logistical back-up to larger- gional news for embezzling public funds and for the nepotism seat about their illegal revenues by a Parliamentary scale operations involving caravans of porters protected by characteristic of his management. The Cantarelli family’s busi- Committee charged with investigating the drug armed guards carrying the drugs on foot for part of the journey, nesses have experienced unprecedented prosperity.They obtain trade at federal level, his name was removed from the Committee’s report. In the ranks of the opposi- before they are taken by boat or air to Colombian laboratories. large contracts to transport diesel for generators in the main tion itself,this omission is attributed to the fact that Scouts in the traffickers’ pay inform them of the movements of towns of Purus and Tarauacá and to build roads. he lent his support to the present governor. the Federal Police assigned to border control.

FORMER NEXT 68 Chapter 5 The contracts are worth millions of dollars, and the question icant confrontations and alliances criss-cross institutions,but are arises of the traffickers’being able to access state funds and use devised for the purposes of cronyist realignments in illegal net- them as they wish. This would be a different matter from the works. The action of para-police groups is a more spectacular mere corruption of civil servants and,as in the case of H.Pascoal, facet of the illegal economies in western Amazonia than the of making some dealers and petty thieves pay a ransom for their domination of the major employers,but it is only an indication of impunity and dealing ruthlessly with those who were reluctant a fragile social contract which, when it is broken, is immediately to do so. It would entail adding the embezzled sums to the for- replaced by violent, illegal forms of social control. tune of illegal revenue(3).

The major traffickers are primarily businesspeople and their companies provide work for hundreds of employees.The smooth running of their businesses results in the creation of indirect employment and provides a living for a host of subcontractors in the building industry and in the hotel and restaurant trades.As they hold government posts, they can also facilitate the recruitment of civil servants. In these isolated towns less affected by demographic pressures than the capital, relative social peace thus seems to reign.The control exercised over the population renders violent, sustained repression unnecessary as the population is subjugated in other ways.On the whole,the inhabitants who buy goods in their employers’shops and on whom they also depend for their pay, are a captive political clientele shared among a handful of influential people.

In this context, recourse to murder is quite exceptional. Rivalries between bosses may take the form of the anodyne appearance of competition around an invitation to tender; for example, one rich businessman put in a bid to transport diesel for public generators, but was deprived of the fortune by the Cantarelli family’s company.The same man lent his support to a candidate for the state government from the leftist opposition, who was ultimately victorious. His aim was not to improve his chances in future invitations to tender,now conducted within the regulations (even though in this case the candidate’s reputation for honesty was not in question),but rather an opposition victory that would further weaken his rival Cantarelli,at the time already weighed down by various criminal charges,by taking the opportunity to strengthen his own network of associates and extend their influence to key posts in the administration(4).

It is not a case here of "undercover deals" that take place as secondary events on the margins of a political system set up to administer the community.On the contrary,the politically signif-

FORMER

69 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 As elsewhere in Brazil, the astonishing pace with which vio- VIOLENCE RELATED lent crime has increased in the last years and the youngsters’par- TO ILLEGAL DRUGS, ticipation in it (Paixão,1982;Campos,1988;Caldeira,1992;Adorno EASY MONEY AND et al.1995) are among the most intriguing features of violence in Brazil since the beginning of the eighties.In the present chapter, JUSTICE IN BRAZIL: I start by claiming that one cannot understand the tremendous 1980-1995. increase in the rates of violent crimes,especially homicide,with- Alba Zaluar out linking it to drug trafficking.This assertion is supported by fieldwork research that I undertook during the eighties in a poor housing zone in Rio de Janeiro, as well as statistical data from other studies in Brazil (Soares, 1994; Adorno, op.cit.) and other South American countries (Daza and Moreno, 1995; Zaluar, 1994b).

The first part of this chapter presents the theoretical frame- Introduction work within which I work.The second part concerns the historical background of the economic, social and political changes that This chapter discusses the present view on crime and vio- compound the scenario in which violence and drug traffic thrive. lence in several Brazilian cities, and more specifically in Rio de In the third part of the chapter I present data from the ethno- Janeiro which is considered by the national and international graphical fieldwork done in the housing zone,as well as the most press as the most violent city in the country.This perception is recent data from on-going research in three different districts of primarily due to Brazil’s important role in transnational drug traf- Rio de Janeiro. In the fourth part I discuss the findings one can fic,and to the apparent mounting poverty and inequality in some gather from statistical data concerning violent deaths and homi- urban areas.There is a widespread argument in the press and in cides.The fifth part presents data from research just completed academic literature that drug trafficking flourishes in shanty- on the Justice system that shows new evidence concerning the towns because of poverty and exclusion. But the argument, relationship between poverty and crime. which points to different mechanisms, does not articulate them in a convincing way.This chapter will discuss the common sense ideas putting them in an interactional perspective. The aim is, Theoretical framework therefore, to understand the connection between poverty and drug traffic,specifying the different economic,social and institu- Violent criminality in Brazilian cities from the eighties on- tional devices and changes that have an effect on it. It is based wards cannot be reduced to the question of poverty, a problem on primary data from several fieldwork research projects as well that has always been present in Brazilian society over the cen- as data obtained from official sources (the Ministry of Health,the turies. Neither can the great rural-urban migration flow that Police and the Judiciary).The latter data was obtained after a remarked the country in previous decades be presented as the cent three-year research which compared the flux of lawsuits cause,for it occurred before the sudden growth of violent crimes. concerning drug-related crimes in the system of Justice in two Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro and Campinas. Data from another In contemporary sociology one is not searching for explana- on-going research project compares styles of drug use and traf- tions either of the sequence of cause-effect links or of structural ficking in three different districts (Copacabana, Madureira and characteristics that make people mere puppets of economic or Tijuca) of Rio de Janeiro, one in the richest zone of the city, an- social facts.There is another paradigm, which we could call the other in a predominantly middle-class area and the last one in a interactional model, in which a set of actions unleashes a chain predominantly poor section. of crosscutting effects that form "configurations" (Elias, 1993) or

NEXT 70 Chapter 6 (1) Mafiosi contracts damage third parties and, al- "constellations" (T.Adorno,1973). Their internal tensions and dis- those who focus on exclusion.The question yet to be properly though they may avoid conflicts,are based on the par- parities remain present so that the final arrangement is not an in- discussed is how the effects of poverty and accelerated urban- ticipants instrumental interests (Habermas,1991).The ternally harmonious system.These constantly renewed arrange- isation or immigration are linked with institutional mechanisms relationships of personal loyalty and reciprocity are ments are more akin to a nexus of meanings which make up so- and the presence of networks(2) and fluxes of a more or less or- neither the outcome of a personal free act, but are cial phenomena, that is, complex and intertwined processes of ganised crime(3) (Schiray, 1994). Although poverty and acceler- forced upon mainly by the threat or use of physical violence or even by terror (Caillé,1996).Demonstrations facts and senses; things and representations that are thought, ated urbanisation are clearly connected results and causes of of the chief’s generosity and magnanimity exist,but created and lived by agents.The interactional model considers exclusion, organized crime crosses all social classes, has bonds are dependent on the whims and caprices of his per- social practices and behaviours in interconnection so that causal- with organised legal business and does not survive without in- sonal power,leaving little space for the subject of ar- ity flows between them and one can speak of complexity.This stitutional support from state agencies delegated to defend the gumentation and demand to appear.The mixture of concept is nowadays increasingly part of the idiom of those who law.The related themes of violence, criminality and insecurity fear,respect and affection that surround him does not nullify the despotic trait of his power. think the new global processes of cultural diffusion,be it of new will not be properly understood if not connected with such di- (2) The concept of the network is used in two main consumer styles, or of behaviour patterns, including the mani- mensions. ways in studies concerning drug traffic nowadays. festation of violence in cities in which the effects of globalisation Firstly, it is anchored in the concepts of territoriality are present. Today, the scene of violence in the world cannot exclude the and hierarchy with which Geography has envisaged local impact of transnational organised crime or, if one may say international, national and regional metropolises as well as other cities in order to study the flux of infor- There have been intense debates over the character of post- so,globalised crime that has sui generis economical,political and mation and products that pass from one to the others war society — be it called post modern, post industrial, high cultural characteristics. In it, those who are in strategic positions through knots and strategic points of interconnec- modernity, etc. — that went beyond the mere discussion about in the large network of transnational connections may profit tions from which some of them hierarchically exert the proper terms used to denote it.However,there has been also quickly and easily as a result of a combination of no or few insti- over the others.Secondly,closer to the anthropologi- a certain agreement that this society has been subjected to an ac- tutional limits, using violent ways of conflict adjustments(4).This cal conception of a social network,it is used to study and understand the illegal activities that have the celerated process of social,economic,political and cultural trans- may be considered as the illegal sector of the production and dis- character of a continuous business that flows by in- formations,the central points of which would be social fragmen- tribution of goods and services that is part of what is called "mass terpersonal relationships based on secrecy and trust tation and the increasing importance granted to leisure and con- consumption of style"(5). always under proof,in other words,on knowledge and sumption activities as means of ascertaining and defining new so- vigilance people have of each other as well as taken cial identities.On the plane of social control,such transformations Among the illegal drugs, cocaine is today associated every- for granted arrangements and rules between them.In this second meaning,it applies notably to the lower mean that conventional moral restraint, which up to a certain where with a style that puts great value in money, power, vio- levels of the drug traffic that have an intricate and de- point exists without the Law,has weakened and has not been re- lence and consumption of "trademark goods". Because of the centralised web hardly controlled, contrary to what placed by new post-conventional ethics based on personal free- very high prices of the drug, which is more expensive than gold happens with the wholesalers and financiers of the dom as well as mutuality, respect for the rights of others, or the in several places(6), its trade has become a source of enormous traffic,who tend to create centralisation and hierarchy use of dialogue to arrive at an understanding (Habermas, 1991). and rapid profits,as well as greater violence.In this case,the prof- in Cartels e Mafia (UNDCP,1997). (3)The concept of organised crime is entangled with This ethics surpasses the one existing in civil law or in the con- its are not engendered by productivity or greater exploration of the concept of Mafia and has been the object of an ception of interpersonal contracts that bind private domains and labour,but by the illegality of the enterprise itself (Salama,1993). unfinished debate which started during the last cen- exists also to a certain extent in organised crime(1).The new ideas The demand that guarantees high profits, is created by changes tury: the former referring to its organised or disor- on the compromises each one must make with others in public in lifestyle associated with individual consumption,which is char- ganised character,and the latter pointing to its con- space (Ricœur, 1990) have not been absorbed in social practices. acterised by style consumption (including the use of illegal dition of crime,work or enterprise.In any case,there is no doubt that one is dealing with a set of activi- As a result,gambling,drug use and pleasure-seeking are the main drugs) and which is more expensive than post-war family con- ties spread in networks that have components of objectives of life for many sectors of the population,especially the sumption due to the secure and comfortable domestic patterns economic endeavour, that is, it needs repetitive ac- younger ones.This makes the businesses that exploit their illegal of middle class families. Such changes in consumer habits have tivities,(though without the discipline,regularity and consumption highly profitable. been accompanied by new conceptions of work and suffering. rights of regular work),a goal of which is profit (eas- Furthermore,these changes,which have been credited as one of ier and higher the better seen at the wholesalers and Since inequality remains at the social, economic and insti- the effects of the globalisation process,are said to have favoured intermediaries network),using variable methods and currencies for exchanges typical of secret or under- tutional level, these new globalising forms of economic activi- or gone with the impressive verified increase in certain crimes ground relationships. ties configure a perverse social and economic integration for "against property" — thefts and mugging — as well as "against

FORMER NEXT 71 Chapter 6 life" — aggressions and homicides (UNDCP, 1997). However, the During the eighties, the country had progressively recov- local and micro mechanism by which this has come about is yet ered democratic practices.This followed a period of economic to be properly studied. development during the military regime (1964-1984),when increased wealth had never been distributed. Instead of economic growth, there had been a scenario of economic, moral Historical background and political crisis supported by rapid inflation.Brazil had a varied and modern economy, but its political and juridical tradi- At the beginning of this century,during the first republican pe- tions and institutions had not evolved.Not only did it have one riod,there had been a noticeable spur of criminality.The most com- of the worst income distributions in the world, but there were mon offences and crimes were disorders, vagrancy, thefts, rob- also great inequalities in terms of access to Justice or distribu- beries. "Crimes of blood" — private vengeance committed be- tive justice.The latter manifests itself when people are system- tween people known to each other — were much less frequent. atically excluded from services, benefits and guarantees which Similar patterns existed in European countries (Fatela,1989).After are considered as social rights of citizenship ensured by the a period of relative tranquillity following the Second World War, State.It is seen when people do not have human or civil rights, there was an enormous increase in violent crimes, especially kid- that is,those rights that are contained in national constitutions napping,robbery and homicide.In many European countries,this or in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.It also appears started during the sixties (Lagrange, 1995), but in Brazil, it started when people do not or can not criticize the laws or the work- at the beginning of the eighties,with violations multiplied several ings of Justice. times in several cities,mainly Rio de Janeiro,São Paulo and Recife. This rapid growth in homicides particularly affected young men During the eighties, there was a new rise of criminality rates (4) All over the world,the existence of laws that pro- 15-29 years old and shifted from crimes of blood to crimes in pub- in most Brazilian states and big cities,mainly in the metropolitan hibit and the strong moral censorship that is im- lic places between people who were neither intimate, nor even regions such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife, Porto posed on such activities, compels practices and or- known to each other.This is exactly the same pattern found in dis- Alegre, and Brasilia. ganisation forms that are both underground and vi- putes over the division and defence of territories and the payoff of olent in their means of negotiation (threats, intimi- traffickers and robbers.This is the same crime pattern as the one Political violence — even though not altogether absent from dation, blackmail, extortion) or in the conflict resolution (aggressions, murders, terrorism) to react ac- that developed during the violent competition between gangs in the recent and less recent past when it assumed forms of col- cordingly in either their commercial or private dis- the ghettos of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York which started lective violence — cannot explain the recent spur of interper- putes. at the beginning of the 20th century. sonal and private violence. In spite of the oscillation between (5) Style is a concept used for substituting culture centralisation and decentralisation and several disruptions of and subculture which have theoretical conse- From the fifties onwards, big metropolitan regions and many the Rule of law,parliamentary power had been institutionalised quences and presuppositions which are inapplicable in such times of very rapid changes and uses of social middle-sized cities appeared as a result of the speedy urbanisation in Brazil since the Empire.Even though there had been setbacks, identities and practices.Used first to designate what of older towns, notably in the Southeast Region, the most popu- Brazilian parliamentary liberal tradition,established through the was called "youth culture", style then became the lated and richest Brazilian region,where are located the two biggest strength that local oligarchies have always had in the country, most suitable term to characterise the swift and tran- metropolises of the country:Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.However, revealed itself stronger than expected with help from support- sitory novelties in fashion of music,clothing,art,lan- starting in the eighties, the migratory movements changed direc- ers of authoritarianism and the military regime.The locus of vi- guage andother juvenile behaviour that could no longer be exclusively interpreted on the holistic per- tion.Prior to that time,migrations took place from the Northeast to- olence has been the subject of a lively debate concerning the (7) spective of religion or of class culture, although not wards the Southeast, or, within the Southeast, from small towns to ideas about the "Brazilian Cordial Man" .There are no records of entirely disconnected with them. cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.The main migratory flow glorious revolutions similar to the French or the American ones, (6) In New York the same pattern is found in the traf- in the eighties has been from the South, originating especially in nor of civil wars between Catholics and Protestants, Christians fic of heroine in that,from the sixties onwards,trafick- the federate state of Paraná,towards the Centre-West and North of and Jews, Muslims and Jews. Although it is true that slavery led ing was established in the black and Puerto Rican neighbourhoods, and the pattern continues in the the country (Martine,1994).During the nineties,São Paulo and Rio to centuries of deep interpersonal violence, the explosive more recent traffic of cocaine and crack (Sullivan,1992). de Janeiro have grown very little,whereas some middle-sized cities episodes of racial,religious and political hatred were either tran- (7) Sergio Buarque de Holanda, Raízes do Brasil. have continued to display noticeable population growth. sitory or localised and never divided the country. Nevertheless,

FORMER NEXT 72 Chapter 6 it is also a fact that violence was given a real, though limited, Even when inflation was controlled by the Plano Real, which place in the collective imagination of Brazilian society, as hap- stabilised the currency in the country, the magical and volatile pened in Portugal (Fatela, 1989). new financial international arrangements still existed, including the transnational systems of money laundering for governmen- Thus, there has never existed in Brazil anything similar to the tal corruption and organized crime linked to the drug traffic. phenomenon "la violencia" which devastated the Colombian po- Financial crimes,including those related to trafficking and money litical parties during the fifties. Nor has there been the enduring laundering inside the country, are still little-known and uncon- urban and rural guerrillas that formed the peculiar pattern of vi- trolled.This is one of the main reasons why one cannot explain olence in Colombia. Unlike what happened in other countries, the present wave of violence as being simply an effect of the ge- the Congress of Brazil did not close down during the military pe- ological layers of customary violence in Brazil — which, in fact, riod.The government continued to use corruption along with has diminished since the Second World War. clientelism as strategies to control the politicians who still had some power of decision.This later resulted in some strongly anti- A certain category of these crimes was committed primarily clientele and anti-State attitudes amongst members of social by poor youngsters. In order to understand this, one should first movements attached to opposition parties. It facilitated the analyse how poverty affects the young. Research has shown in emergence of networks and circuits of money laundering for or- many countries that,nowadays,a greater proportion of the poor ganized crime, even during the period of re-democratisation. belong to the "female" and "child" categories. Data from the Finally, since there have been no or few reforms within the jus- Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics — IBGE — indi- tice system, and especially no changes in police practices with cates that, in 1989, 50.5% of Brazilian children and adolescents regard to the poor,one might say that the effects of the military belonged to families with per capita income of less than half the regime are still present in the functioning of these institutions. minimum wages (around US$50) and 27.4 % belonged to families with less than a quarter of the minimum wage. Of the latter, Inflation, which ravished the country until 1994, is not an ex- 56% belonged to families headed by women. More than 40% of clusively economic phenomenon; psychological and moral fac- the families headed by women were below the poverty line, tors are also involved.It has therefore had perverse effects on the whereas approximately 30% of nuclear families were in the same attitudes and values of the population, especially in the wages situation (Ribeiro e Saboia, 1993).The growth in the proportion and salaries sector where people gained nothing from it.High in- of families headed by women with children under 10 years in the flation erodes mutual trust without which there is no stable so- poorest layers of the population is pointed out by numerous cial relationship between economic agents. Furthermore, infla- studies (Ribeiro da Silva, 1987; Henriques and Valle e Silva, 1989; tion had been considered a form of "stealing" the salaried, and Rizzini, 1993; Barros e Mendonça, 1993). According to the 1991 had depreciated governmental credibility,fostering an authority census, families headed by women with children corresponded and governance crisis in the country. Psychologically, it had also to 16% of the total number of families in the country,but,within been used as a justification — "everybody is stealing" — for the lowest income group, the same type of family represented thefts, robberies and muggings and all the instrumental games 30% of the total.Whereas below-poverty-line families headed by that people increasingly engaged in. Finally, high inflation had women accounted for 26.27% of the total number of families, facilitated the work of networks and circuits of organized crime amongst the 1% richest such families represented only 3.4% of inside the country in so far as it had helped create the mirages of the total. "easy money". Those who had started practising increasingly more daring economic crimes were helped by the growing diffi- It is also a fact that, in order to compensate for the wage culties in records and social control over public budgets and bills. losses provoked by inflation as well as to respond to the new con- This background has,therefore,facilitated corruption and money sumption demands for domestic equipment and clothing, poor laundering, activities that are very important for establishing families have put children and adolescents on the work market criminal connections. in order to bring in more income.Several studies also point to the

FORMER NEXT 73 Chapter 6 increase in this category of work in urban areas during the eight- background. Most discourses, including the social policy dis- ies and to a bigger rate of unemployment amongst youths. course, have linked deprivation predominantly to material lack Nevertheless, the majority of these youngsters and children — (as if inequality was simply a matter of food) without analysing many of whom work informally in the streets — never join crim- the absence of a coherent idea of citizenship, which implies in- inal groups, despite their vulnerable position.Only a small num- tegrated social,political and civil rights.Inequality,therefore,has ber become involved with gangs of traffickers or robbers. Basic been interpreted only in terms of material differences, without needs or the wish to help their families are not sufficient reasons linkages to juridical and political differences.This is a double sim- to explain why some join these gangs and others do not,though plification: confusing poverty or social inequality with absolute the need to earn money remains a factor.In reality,few poor peo- deprivation in its most concrete and evident symptom — hunger ple opt for a criminal career. In one fieldwork research done in a —; and reducing citizenship to social rights. In the former, the poor neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, I estimated that around simplification ignores deep changes in the consumption pat- 1% of the total population (380 people out of a population of ap- terns of workers' families,that explain the relative deprivation vis- poximately 120 000) belonged to trafficker gangs, and approxi- à-vis other social groups and categories,as well as the intra-fam- mately 1200 people were involved in thefts and muggings ily and inter-generation conflicts in a consumer society. (Zaluar, 1994). Although urban society in Brazil today is highly individualis- Finally, the existence of a new form of informal/illegal market tic,a romantic conception of the community is still central to the is another element that helps explain what is going on in Brazilian political culture that constitutes the ideological setting for most cities.Informal markets have always existed in Brazilian cities,and attempts to tackle the problems of poor youth. Emergency pro- have been an important source of income for the poor with little grammes that provided insufficient training for work and gave qualification for work or little schooling. These informal markets jobs to unqualified youngsters in a complex work market only re- have developed personal networks and complicated rules for the produced the problems that led those children and adolescents occupation of the main streets in the major urban centres of the to the streets. At the same time, the changing social image and country.Yet,for the past decades,they have been joined by street definition of the street due to organized crime and increasing vi- vendors who goods which have been stolen from trucks, resi- olent crimes has augmented the pressure for "keeping the chil- dences and pedestrians, or which have been smuggled in from dren off the streets",the main reason for popular support of such other countries.Informal trade,which traditionally has been a way programmes. At the same time, the social image attached to out of unemployment and an alternative for subaltern work, has those youngsters reinforces their new social identity,which is in- thus become tied to organized crime.This becomes even clearer creasingly linked to marginal activities and violence.This calls for when one discovers its connections with gold selling shops, car a change in school pedagogy and in technical teaching of this repair shops, wrecked cars lots, antique dealers, etc., some of sector of Brazilian urban population,as well as for institutional re- which have become collecting points for stolen goods.It has been forms in order to integrate the several dimensions of citizenship discovered recently that even some legal truck transport busi- for the poor. nesses are part of the network for truck robbery. However, there has been little systematic investigation of these networks so far, although policemen have sometimes repressed harshly the last Profit, the Etho of Virility in the line:those who sell on the streets. and Warfare in Drug Dealing Most of the projects to reduce inequalities that were imple- Some research on drug use has been done among the mented during the eighties have been unsuccessful.To under- Brazilian school population. It has revealed that the drugs most stand this, one must take a close look at the political ideology consumed are not the illegal ones.On the contrary,the most pop- that guided them.The idea of poverty in Brazil,for instance,can- ular are inhalants or solvents ("loló" or "lança-perfume", glues, not be understood without considering the political culture enamel, gas, acetone), all of them openly sold in shops. In the

FORMER NEXT 74 Chapter 6 same way — but to a lesser degree — anti-anxiety medicine an enormous source of quick profit and violence. In 1984, as the (tranquillisers and sleeping pills) and amphetamines (or the fa- consumers told the fieldwork team,"it snowed" in Rio de Janeiro, mous "bolinhas" — small balls) are consumed.These are found a tropical city.The traffic itself changed.It was no longer done on nowadays on the black market since,starting in 1963,the Health the familiar basis of the selling group, and the face-to-face rela- (8) In this matter,there is today a hierarchy between Ministry has progressively controlled them. Nevertheless, they tionship with the "man of the truck" who brought marijuana from shantytowns in Rio,some of them functioning as distribution centres for retail, while others as simple can also be bought legally as appetite moderators. Marijuana is the producing regions within the country.In its place came a com- costumers and small dealers trading points. In the only in fourth position, and if one includes alcohol and tobacco, plex, diversified and very well armed organisation in which all first ones, the exceedingly well armed crews domi- it comes in sixth place.Cocaine appears in seventh place (Carlini, commercial and personal conflicts were settled with guns. A vir- nate the local population with extremely ruthless 1989 apud Bucher, 1992), although there are some signs that its ile cult of guns and of violent exhibitions of power is now the rules of security.In the second ones,the situation of consumption is increasing.These figures, if correct, indicate that main aspect of the organisation culture. Drug traffic and its re- insecurity varies,depending also on the relationship between drug crews and local military policemen, drug use does not necessarily provoke violent struggles between pression, the history of which is recent in Brazil, created the con- or the neighbourhood and the Police. Because of traffickers and users, since this does not happen with the other ditions that enticed many lower income youths to involve them- this, the Favelado Federation of the Dwellers’ equally dangerous but legally obtained drugs. selves in a localised, but very deadly, war. In it, adolescents and Association estimates that around 20% of "favela- even children have been dying in increasingly greater proportions dos" have left their respective shantytowns. In Brazil, nevertheless, illicit drugs have continued to spread due to the use of firearms (Zaluar,1994). (9) Some anthropologists,such as Sahlins (1987) and Dumezil (apud Sahlins),have suggested a relationship rapidly,especially among young people,creating centres of bloody between power external to society, which takes on conflict in poor neighbourhoods.Repressive policies have resulted Today,the drug trade has become synonymous of warfare at the signs of virility, and the violation of the people, in corruption within repressive institutions, fear, prejudice against the end of the traffic network. In order to keep control of a co- which takes the sign of femininity. Hawaiian chiefs the poor in general and a tendency to demonise drug users.They caine outlet, a "front man" must be constantly vigilant. He must came from the sea and were considered foreign gods; have had a particularly bitter effect on the daily life of the poor. make sure his competitors are not taking too big a slice of the ac- they symbolically received native women during the enthronement rituals. Dumezil, taking the rape of Relations between neighbours, families, drug users and non-users, tion by selling more or better goods or acquiring more arms.He Sabine women in Roman historical formation differ- armed bandits and unarmed working people, and relations within has to deal with his supplier who is no longer just a person com- entiates between a virile,youthful and violent power neighbourhood organisations,have been deeply affected. ing around in a truck.There are several new networks that con- prevailing in the beginning of domination (celeritas) nect Brazilian states (São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Rondonia etc) and and a mature power based on the peaceful and pro- Illegal drug traffic had never been a social problem in Brazil others that connect Brazil with producing countries (Bolivia,Peru, creative character of a well-established people (grav- (8) itas).The paradoxes and problems of legitimacy and until the late seventies.Then,cocaine started to be negotiated on Colombia) .The front man must deal with the local military po- force are present in the rape of women by a violent a large scale in the country, following the new routes chosen by licemen, who commonly receive part of the profits, or else he because virile power. the Colombian cartels and the Italian-American Mafia. Cocaine gets ripped off,his spot is taken,or he is simply wiped out by po- (10)The gang responsible for most rapes was the one cargoes were sent to Europe and to the USA by these routes.Rio licemen or by competitors from both inside and outside his gang, called "caixa-baixa" (lower-cases),a band of thieves that de Janeiro and São Paulo, as well as other cities and towns, be- inside and outside prison (Coelho, 1989). entered into war with the most powerful gang in the neighbourhood because of the high cuts taken on the came new consumer markets for drugs. From the beginning of valuable stolen goods the "lower cases" brought back the eighties,especially from 1983,there was a clear market strat- While the law of the streets used to condemn rape totally and to sell.After Zé Pequeno's murder,the lower-cases took egy oriented towards changing the habits of drug consumers in prescribed exemplary punishment of transgressors,today sexual over the hustle after a fierce struggle and were nearly those cities.Formerly the illicit drug market concerned almost ex- liberation has become so intertwined with disregard for other all killed off in subsequent battle with the Red clusively marijuana, which was an underground and dropout people’s rights that rape,like death,has become banal(9).Only ha- Commando (Comando Vermelho,an organised crime ring). Because of their disrespectful behaviour, the drug and never had great economic importance nor received bitual rapists are identified and sometimes thrown out of the (10) lower cases were held in low esteem by the commu- rigid repressive policy.Then cocaine started to be offered at good neighbourhood or lynched .The predominant idea today is that nity.The Red Commando has a policy of seeking sup- value. gang members no longer have "respect" for their poor neigh- port from the local population and therefore combats bours, an attitude that used to prevail in the underworld, al- local thieves who mess up their business.It also follows As elsewhere,cocaine was not altogether new in Brazil since it though attempts have been made to politicise them and main- the strict rule of capital punishment for betrayers or for those who kill because of personal revenge.Death is used to be sold openly in drugstores and pharmacies for medical tain a respectable facade for traffickers in the shantytowns of Rio the punishment for men,women,"minors" who squeal and social uses. Nowadays, it is linked to a new culture of money, de Janeiro. or kill for personal motives,but not for rapists. power,violence and consumerism.As elsewhere,its trade became

FORMER NEXT 75 Chapter 6 Nevertheless, the criminals themselves are the ones who are raids, the young outlaws never tire of bragging that the "chicks" likely to cite seductive women as the motive of feuding among go for men who carry guns, because they feel more protected. men:"It was a woman who led me into the life of crime".Many of Women confirm this version: them speak of the enemies they have made because of women. ".... So a guy goes and puts a gun in his belt, thinks he's really Local gangs waged violent fights over women during or after cool, picks up a whole bunch of women, makes a baby in one of dances organised by youngsters during which they listened to them, and dies overnight. Sometimes the older guys get women new styles of music advocating violent confrontation with the involved in this who have nothing to do with the scene, and they "system" (funk, hip hop, etc.). The story of the war between Zé think it's all going to be cool, like it's going to be like that famous Pequeno and Manoel Galinha is well known.Manoel Galinha was guy with all kinds of women,with gold necklaces,and they're go- a handsome working man with a beautiful girlfriend, who was ing to have it easy, go to a nice motel in a fancy car and all that... coveted by Zé Pequeno, a gang leader who expanded his drug Most women like outlaws...because of the guns,they figure if any- business at the point of a gun. He wanted to "have it all", to take body messes with them, they're going to get it... I think a guy like over all the drug outlets in the neighbourhood. He also wanted this thinks,like,he's got an iron in his belt,he's got a gold chain and Manoel’s woman.Short and ugly,he was unsuccessful in winning a Champion watch and he thinks tomorrow he's going to have a her heart and took vengeance,humiliating Manoel in front of her calculator and I don't know what else,and that he's fine.And then, by shooting him in the buttocks and slapping her around. one nice day,he goes out to rob for his lady,and he gets it." Manoel decided to organise his own gang and take revenge. A war started then that lasted for several years, involving other In this game of seduction, it's important to flaunt fancy gangs even after the main protagonists were killed.Hundreds of clothes and other outward symbols of wealth: a gold chain, car, young people died in the process (Zaluar, 1985 and 1992)(11). expenses at motels, etc.That's what shows you have money in your pocket that you can spend any time you want, since While women would appear to be the main bone of con- "women don't like to rough it".Young men say they go into crime tention,they are actually just one element.The key issue is in fact to show off for women and conquer them. However, under this the meaning of the relations between men. The same kind of emblem of the femme fatale, womanhood is reduced to a prop struggle is waged over weapons,dope,and stolen goods.As one for a young man's prestige in the neighbourhood: to go to a disillusioned young "vapor"(12) said in an interview: dance surrounded by women, with money in your pocket, to "Dealing dope is a business of getting even. Pushers have al- make everyone greet you,admire you,envy you.Even here,fem- ways got an eye on other men's goods,even their women.They'll ininity is just one more factor in the competition between men. kill just to get another man's woman." Neither will they submit to anything or anyone: "they think they can get away with anything".Here may be the crux of the matter: Dope hustling is cited by disillusioned pushers as a place of exacerbated male pride and a thirst for unbridled power in a his- distrust and animosity, where there is no respect except for the torical context of moral and institutional crisis,with no restraints (11) Many women died in this war from stray bullets other man's gun. It is also a sexually charged, virile world. All the on the highly lucrative,expanding market for illicit drugs,sought or bullets on target.There were young women,girls, men carry guns;to carry a gun is to "walk mated" or to "have your by consumers as part of a pleasurable life. even pregnant women killed, often after being tor- iron in your belt".To show off your weapon, or "to pull your stick tured because they were suspected of informing or treason,while for others there was no apparent mo- out", is a common characteristic of such urban outlaws, and one It should not be forgotten that this style of drug dealing makes tive. A total of 722 young people were killed in the which can often prove fatal. Instead of the verb to rob, they say extraordinary profits possible, even though it is not as organised course of 15 years of warfare in this neighbourhood. "to mount" their victims, an expression used both for mugging as the transnational drug traffic and sometimes is actually disor- (12) This term denotes the man responsible for the people on the streets and for breaking and entering houses.To ganised due to all the gangs and individuals who are striving for drug distribution to the sellers. He is the one who kill somebody is to "lay them down". The prime audiences for power and position in the trade.Even if not co-ordinated entirely takes care of the selling place (boca-de-fumo) and administrates its personnel. In the hierarchy, he is such displays are apparently the women they are trying to im- like a Mafia hierarchy,the drug trade in Rio has a very efficient hor- second to the manager who is the financial admin- press with their power and the money in their pockets. Despite izontal arrangement by which a shantytown that runs out of istrator and keeps the book. the fact that men with guns are the first to be grabbed in police drugs or guns immediately gets them from the allied shanty-

FORMER NEXT 76 Chapter 6 towns: either in the Comando Vermelho (Red Command) net- Money in the drug business is highly concentrated at the top. works,or in the Terceiro Comando (Third Command) network,the Organised crime thrives in cartels at its highest levels based on two best-known organisations for drug and gun traffic.These net- the death penalty for those who disobey orders or denounce works or Commands conciliate the features of a geographically their superior. Small dealers in Brazilian shantytowns, despite defined network,which includes central or diffusion points,from their military apparatus, in fact help those higher up in the hier- which other linkages are established on the basis of horizontal re- archy (that is, those who produce and trade tons of the illicit ciprocity.This has both positive and negative aspects. For, even drugs) to concentrate income and accumulate capital. Lawyers, though guns and drugs are quickly lent to allies, the violent re- corrupt policemen,traders of stolen goods and so on should also ciprocity of private vengeance becomes imperative in the ab- be included in the list of those making a lot of money.Very few sence of a juridical form of conflict resolution.Because of such ex- of the poor youths manage to establish themselves in the busi- changes, adolescents die not only in wars for the control of trad- ness, for they die very young or go to prison. But they all con- ing points, but also for any motives that menace the status or tribute to the enormous enrichment of those who remain on the pride of youngsters trying to assert their virility — the "Sujeito dark side of crime, who are never recorded in the official data. Homem" (Subject Man),as they say (Alvito,1996; Lins,1997). Little yet is known about them in Brazil: who they are, how they live, how they make contacts in the underworld of crime, how According to the interviews, with the sale of only 200 grams they climb the social ladder. of cocaine, dealers can cover the price of one kilo sold by the "matuto" or intermediary who left it on consignment.They can Data on violent crimes during the past few years suggests a make a profit of 500%, partly through mixing cocaine with link between the spread of drug use,mainly amongst youngsters cheaper substances. Half of the profit goes to the "man in the (Carlini, 1993), the increase in violent crime rates(13) and the re- front" or "trafficker", 30% to the "manager", who does the ac- pressive policies aimed almost exclusively against the poor and counts, and various percentages to the "vapor", who remains at in which police corruption thrives.The social and economic con- the trading point and distributes the small amounts of cocaine text of inflation, recession and increased poverty only makes ("papelotes") to the "aviões", the very young dealers who finally matters worse.This partly explains the political apathy that ap- take the dope to the customers.The latter are those most com- parently seized the population in Rio de Janeiro's poor neigh- monly arrested and prosecuted. Most of the time they just re- bourhoods.From the end of the seventies onwards,gun posses- ceive "cargas" to sell, for which they become entirely responsi- sion has created, for those youngsters involved in the drug traf- ble.They may sell them after "malhá-las",that is after increasing fic war,a military power that has shaken the foundations of all au- their weight with cheap substances in order to raise profits;they thority. Local politicians, businessmen and policemen became may consume most of them, which makes them prone to be the focus of aggressive behaviour. Schoolteachers as well as lo- killed by the trafficker. The death penalty is the sentence for cal leaders lost their authority vis-à-vis the youths who had the those who repeatedly do not pay him or who excessively crum- power of money and guns (Guimarães, 1992; Paiva, 1992; Zaluar, (13) The definition of violent crime is not a uniform ble the merchandise. 1985, 1988, 1993, 1994). Today, more and more students carry one in all the statistics available in Brazil.The legal guns to school and children sometimes cannot go to class be- definition includes homicide, attempted homicide, For young men or boys, the main source of pride lies in the cause of gunfire or rivalries between the neighbouring schools. robbery, armed robbery, harmful bodily injury, rape and attempted rape.In the data furnished by the po- fact that they are part of the gang, use guns, join in robbing and Even the experienced and politically concerned adults who have lice,homicides as a result of traffic accidents are not looting,become famous for this,and,if they have the proper "dis- worked in the countless neighbourhood organisations, such as included ("homícidios culposos"), only intentional position",may someday ascend in the hierarchy of crime (Zaluar, schools of samba, dwellers' associations, soccer teams (Zaluar, homicide ("homicídios dolosos").Data available from 1994;Lins,1997).Thus,the strategies for recruiting youngsters — 1985), are almost powerless. the Ministry of Health include all deaths by external calculated according to how many permanent dealers (from 10 causes and then separate them into various categories - homicide, deaths caused by accidents and to 30) the trading point needs — are based as much on the other violent occurrences — which are not used in prospect of earning "easy money", as on the youth’s fascination uniform manner in the nation as a whole. for power and fame.

FORMER NEXT 77 Chapter 6 Statistics on Violent Deaths poor municipalities of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, doubtless because police investigation is particularly difficult The data on the increase in violent crime in the eighties are ir- there.A careful study of police inquiries and judicial cases during refutable, but we will focus on the violent crime that is mostly 1991 in Rio de Janeiro showed that 57 % of the homicides that linked to the drug gangs warfare:homicide.Generally,the young year were linked to drug traffic (Soares et al.,1994).This is just one ("minor") violator's participation in violent crimes is clear.It tripled more indication suggesting that the growth in the homicide rate in just a few years,from 1882 to 1985 (Campos,1988).Most of the has been somewhat linked to the greater entry of guns and agents of this violence were young males;they were also the main drugs in the country, since both began at the same time. One of victims.In 1980,according to the data of the Ministry of Health,59 the main routes of cocaine in Brazil passes through Rondônia, per 100.000 men between 15 and 19 years old died of gun injuries Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo, states in which the violent in the state of Rio de Janeiro; in 1990, 190 died the same way; in death rates and the incidence of HIV virus through intravenous 1995, 184.The rates for men between 20 and 24 are: 111 per 100 use of drugs,reached the highest levels in the country,doubling 000 in 1980; 260 in 1990; and 276 youngsters in 1995.During this during the decade (Bastos,1995).But impunity certainly is also a year, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, 6 399 people were victims of factor in the increase of the mortality rate amongst the small traf- deaths by external causes (113 per 100 000,) of which 45% were fickers since homicides do not receive the same attention and in- homicides.In the metropolitan region,17 684 deaths by external vestigation from policemen as crimes related to illegal drugs, at causes were registered (33 per 100 000) of which 55% were homi- least as far as the poor are concerned. cides.As a point of comparison, deaths from nutritional deficien- cies affected 382 per 100 000 persons in the same year. In the São Paulo region, the percentage of violent crimes among the total number of crimes registered increased 50 per- Official data from the State Secretaries of Justice,based on po- cent in four years (Brant, 1989). In 1981, the homicide rate in this lice reports,indicates that,in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, city amounted to 25 deaths per 100 000 (Caldeira,1992),but a re- the proportion of intentional homicides grew tremendously dur- cent study reveals that between 1990 and 1994 the average ing the eighties.In 1981,the homicide rate was 21 per 100 000 in- homicide rate was 42.91 deaths per 100 000 (apud Adorno et al., habitants (Caldeira, 1992), whereas, from 1990 to 1994, it was esti- 1995). In only one year (between 1982 and 1983) the rate of mated at 42.91 murders per 100 000 inhabitants (apud Adorno et growth was 53.8% for all homicides (Adorno, 1992). In the mu- al.,1995).This means that the richest Brazilian city followed the pat- nicipality of São Paulo, in a ten-year period the increase was tern found in other cities of the American continent (Zaluar et al., 90.4%: from 3 516 in 1984 to 6 697 in 1994. These murders hit 1995).Of these deaths,47.21 % mainly concerned young males be- mainly young males (47.21%) between 15 and 24 years (ibidem). tween 15 and 24 years of age. Although violent death rates have These figures are even more impressive if one adds the deaths increased all over the country, the most common victims are not caused by policemen. At the beginning of the 1980s, there were children but adolescent and young males from the metropolises approximately 300 deaths per year in the city due to encounters and richest regions of the country.During 1991,official statistics in- with the military police.At the end of the decade,there were 585 dicated that 12.5 men had died per each woman between 20 and deaths per year and in 1991 alone,there were 1 140 deaths.Those 39 years old in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. In some figures were not included in the homicide rates.The number of of the poorer municipalities of this region,the rate had reached the deaths among the police force also increased over the years.Even amazing figure of 15 men per woman. though they include death off duty and in other work places,the figures are quite clear:26 military policemen died in 1982 and 78 In the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, the homicide died in 1991 (Caldeira, 1992). rate tripled during the last decade,rising from 23 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in 1982 to 63.03 in 1990, a period in which the There are other sources of data, such as the research done population of the city had stabilised (growth of 1.13 %).However, by the Brazilian Centre for Childhood and Adolescence (CBIA) this impressive increase happened mainly in the peripheral and throughout the country.This research established that Brazilian

FORMER NEXT 78 Chapter 6 youths from 15 to18 years old die more from murders than The relatively large participation of young males as agents from any other motive. In the age bracket of 5 to 11 year-olds, and victims of violence in Brazil is an international tendency, es- traffic accidents are the first cause of death. From that age on, pecially on the American continent (including the USA).Because homicides provoked by firearms lead the statistics with 39% of these deaths follow the same patterns as elsewhere on the con- the total deaths,followed by traffic accidents (26%),other types tinent,it is most probable that they are due to the fact that drugs of arms (12%), and drowning (11%). Of the 39% of homicides and arms enter the country easily.It should also be noted that re- that were provoked by firearms, 78% of those killed were pressive policies toward illegal drug trade and use, as well as vi- youths who were 15 to 18 years old, 10% were 12 to 14 years olent police practices in Brazil have added important elements old, 8% were 5 to 11 years old, 4% were 0 to 4 years old. to the high mortality rates and profits of those at strategic points Therefore, adolescents over 14 years of age are being system- of the underground business network. atically killed, probably by other adolescents of the same age. Corrupted policemen who form what one could call "extortion The available data from Medellin (Colombia) shows that the groups" rather than "extermination groups", also kill some of proportion of 15-19 year-olds and 20-24 year-olds who die is very them, but not the majority.The former name is more appropri- high relative to the national totals. Also, 78% of the deaths regis- ate since it became clear after recent massacres that policemen tered in Medellin among youngsters between 15 and 24 years old demanding their share of the traffic and robbery money exe- are due to violence (Presidencia de la Republica, 1991). Brazilian cuted the youths. cities, however, have not attained the same records. In Colombia, where violence reached world records during the fifties and six- One could say that the age pyramid in Brazil is similar nowa- ties,the homicide rates are in general much greater than in Brazil. days to that of a country at war, with the lack of young men cre- Guerrilla warfare,paramilitary groups,paid political assassinations ating an unbalance between the sexes.But there is no ground for are part of Colombian political traditions and have long been part the statement that this war, as expressed in the rate of violent of the population's daily life.Even so, there was a tremendous in- crimes, is a class war as some leftists think. Nor is it a millenarian crease in the last decade, when drug traffic and dirty war pros- redress of wrongs in which the poor are avenging their oppres- pered.Today the homicide rates are three times higher than they sion by the rich. Homicide rates are higher in the poor periphery were ten years ago (Presidencia de la Republica, 1991; Daza & of the metropolitan regions and shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro Moreno,1993).In 1991,they had the following impressive figures: and São Paulo. In other words, the main victims of violent crimes 435 per 100000 inhabitants in Medellin, 389 in Itagui, 339 in are the young poor themselves.This is because of the chain of per- Apartadó, 319 in Cartago, and 91 in Cali.The urban average was sonal vengeance, especially bitter between drug dealer’s gangs, 92 homicides per 100 000 inhabitants (Daza & Moreno,1993). and because of their lack of political and economic resources, which would guarantee them access to security and justice.In São Paulo there is also evidence that rates of violent crime are highest in the peripheral areas and outlying municipalities (Caldeira, The justice system: impunity 1992). Consequently, poor families are deprived of those who for homicides and sentences would be the main breadwinners.The injured and disabled be- for drug-related crimes come a burden that increases costs in the tight family budget. Public hospitals had almost one million in-patients during 1988 The very inefficient and unjust functioning of the justice sys- who were victims of accidents and violent crimes,increasing costs tem in Brazil has played an important role in the crisis of moral- and the traditional lack of resources of which the system suffers ity and the weakening of the ethos of work, and allowed crimi- (Zaluar et al.,1994).In this context,it is difficult to affirm that drug nals to become entrenched in the country. An incredibly high traffic is implementing income distribution or "helping Third percentage of homicides are not properly investigated and their World countries". authors never identified. A study of the Criminal Justice System in São Paulo (apud Adorno,1990) has found greater percentages

FORMER NEXT 79 Chapter 6 of conviction among those accused of robbery, theft and drug administrative officers.This delays decisions and discourages the traffic than among those accused of homicide and assault. parties involved, especially the poorest, from exerting their con- Another study done in 1991 revealed that only 1.38% of the stitutional rights. Convicts at the end of their sentence are the homicides committed against children and adolescents up to17 main victims and the most radical critics of this system, but the years old were effectively investigated,with the victims and the precarious state of the judiciary is also the cause for constant suspects identified,and transformed into police inquiries and ju- complaint on the part of lawyers and parties in the judicial cases. dicial cases which resulted in sentences (Mesquita, 1996).In Rio However,one cannot make generalisations on the functioning of de Janeiro, another study shows that 92% of the homicide judi- the system, since slowing the decision of criminal cases can be cial cases were returned to the police because they were poorly one of the strategies of defence. investigated; in other words, only 8% of the murders registered by the police under the form of an inquiry were in fact judged The biggest hindrance to the accomplishment of justice is (Soares, 1993). found elsewhere.The impositions on the penal proceedings often hinder the judiciary and the public defence, either because Youths receive, in their respective neighbourhoods and of social discrimination against the accused with certain social cities, the instruments of their power and pleasure from out- characteristics or without family support,or because the accusa- siders.This is increased by institutional working and the influ- tion law is not sufficiently precise.This is the case of crimes re- ence of values that rush them into the pursuit of sensations and lated to drugs. Indeed the accusation law in one of the two arti- money. Beyond any nexus of objective causality, even those cles of the Penal Code that deal with such crimes depends on the which take place at the symbolic plane,some of these youths — accepted ideas of the jurisdictional agents. In these crimes, the but not all of them,even if submitted to the same conditions — police investigators in the proceedings make decisions based on "delegate to the world of the powers who seduce them to crim- social factors about the choice of an article of the Code — use of inality" (Katz,1988).In this internal arrangement,they act as au- drugs (article 16) or traffic (article 12) —since the language in thors of their actions.The limits to this space of freedom are set which they are written is not precise and opens many possibili- by the rapid changes, effects of many previous actions, in the ties of interpretation.This could happen at the moment of the family organisation and sexual relationships as well as in the ac- supposedly criminal act, which becomes the Act of Prison in ceptance of values related to the consumption of "style". All of Flagrant (A.P.F.),or during the interaction with other actors who them provoked what one could call either a diffuse social participate in the judicial process:judges,advocates,prosecutors, anomie or lack and confusion of social maps.Equally important public defenders.Thus, the preconceptions, the tacit truths of a are the rooting of organised crime in some institutions achieved police station routine, the interpersonal conflicts and the moral through strategies of corruption,the unequal functioning of the fiber of the person who is accused appear as fundamental com- justice system due to the organisational practices created and ponents of the judicial cases,and will be presented as "facts" dur- maintained by those working in it, besides the obsolete Penal ing the trial. Code that resulted from public policies adopted by Republican governments.Working together, all of them created "islands of Here resides the illusion of "easy money" that charms so many impunity", an expression conceived by Dahrendorf (1987) to re- poor teenagers.The youngster who chooses the criminal career fer to other countries. in fact enriches other people — who often are never caught and (14) Flux refers to the routes followed by several punished — but not himself.Those who become very wealthy records involving criminal accusations to people in- One of the threads of this complex texture concerns, there- are receivers of stolen goods,wholesale traffickers,smugglers of side the System of Justice, which starts with the fore, the Justice flux(14), the infra-structure of which is notably in- guns,corrupt policemen and finally criminal lawyers who charge Bulletin or Record of Occurrence (B.O.or R.O.),passes efficient,due to the small number of judges per inhabitant in the up to US$10 000 to defend those accused of illegal drug use,and by the police inquiry that may or may not become a judicial denounce, that in its turn may or may not cities or the amount of lawsuits in each "vara" of justice,as well as up to US$20 000 to defend those accused of trafficking. provoke the opening of a lawsuit,that will end either the small number of jurisdictions in each town.Consequently the being judged or filed. flux is slow and full of obstacles,encouraging the use of bribes to

FORMER NEXT 80 Chapter 6 According to the Law 6368,the use and commerce of certain description of the apprehension after a personal search. During substances, such as marijuana and cocaine, are considered a the inquiry and later, during the lawsuit, his testimony as to the crime.This has given enormous power to the police. Policemen conditions and the situation that generated the A.P.F.will also be are the ones who supply the proof which,according to the inter- heard and included in the proceedings.The defendant gives his views of several actors in the judicial cases (registered by the re- testimony after the policeman.It is not unusual that,as a strategy search done between 1991 and 1997(15), needs to be reaffirmed recommended by his lawyer,he plead guilty of use in order to get during the process as the main element for conviction.This ma- a lesser penalty. If the lawyer is sufficiently able and knows po- terial proof is the drug found in the possession of the defendant, licemen well enough, this confession is reinforced by the techni- and must necessarily be obtained in the act.Policemen perform cal expert who provides a toxicological exam which confirms the (15)This research started in 1991and focussed only the initial movements: the record of an A.P.F.and a B.O. that may defendant’s dependency to the toxic substance. In this case, the on the articles 12 and 16 of the Brazilian Penal Code, the first of which refers to illegal drug traffic,and the result in a police inquiry, which in turn may be transformed into defendant’s culpability is erased. Consequently, the judiciary in second to use and possession of such drugs.The re- a charge and a lawsuit. During this flux, policemen prepare the most cases legitimises the discriminatory functioning of justice search team did it first at the rich municipality of written registers of the proofs that may be decisive in ascertain- whereby poor users and small dealers, who are more closely Campinas,state of São Paulo,which had 907 995 in- ing who will be indicted for use or for traffic. Under article 16 of watched by policemen according to the organisational practices habitants in 1996, attended by only four criminal Law 6368, the penalty is six months to two years in prison that still prevalent in the Brazilian Military Police and Civil Police sta- courts.In 1994 it began at the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, the second biggest Brazilian city, that had may be commuted to community work. Under article 12 of the tions, are qualified as criminals. Needless to say, they are usually around six million dwellers, and 38 courts. ln both same law, a "heinous" crime carries a penalty of three to fifteen people who do not have enough money or the right connections cities,a list was made of all the inquiries and lawsuits years in prison. In order to show efficiency or to prove that they to obtain good lawyers. Their destination is the penitentiary, which had their results registered in the "Livros de are not part of a scheme of corruption, policemen arrest mere whenever they are condemned to privation of liberty.Meanwhile, Tombo" of these courts between the years 1980 and users or small dealers (aviões).The amount of drugs seized is not money launders, medium and retail distributors of guns and ille- 1991.The researchers looked for some of the defendants’attributes such as age,gender,profession,oc- the discriminating factor, for the researchers found cases classi- gal drugs are seldom condemned. cupation.Later on,they had interviews with lawyers, fied as "possession and use" involving 1 860 kilos of marijuana, prosecutors,judges,public attorneys and prisoners. and cases classified as "traffic" involving only two grams. In the city of Campinas,State of São Paulo,the cases at crimi- In Rio de Janeiro,nine of the courts could not be in- nal varas increased many times during the decade,be the charge vestigated, but the deeper study of 364 lawsuits, The interviews with prosecutors and judges showed that use or traffic of illicit drugs. In 1991 there were four times more concerning crimes related to illegal drugs dur- ing1991,made possible to add items referring to the there are many preconceived images associated with traffickers. people charged than in 1981;this may be accounted for by an in- defendant’s colour and condition of defence to the Some people said explicitly:"one can tell a dealer by sight",or"one crease in use or as an effect of increased police surveillance.The material proofs that were registered in the A.P.F. knows who is a trafficker and who is not". Others argued rationally figures for charges of use were systematically higher than the (16) Following article 200 of the Brazilian Penal that the quantity is not everything, since the stock may be at the charges of traffic during those years, but the lawsuits against Code, the confession during the police inquiry "will end or at the beginning either for the user or the dealer.Therefore, users increased much more at the end of the eighties.At the end be divisible and retractable, without harm to the judge’s free convincement,founded on the examina- they valued material proof other than the drugs:lists of names of of the ten years, there were twice as many people charged with tion of the proof in its totality". possible customers or guns, which were found with the defen- illicit use as with trafficking. (17) Recently (16/4/1995), the newspaper Folha de dants. But, of course, one of the most important elements in the S.Paulo presented a research which confirmed that proceedings is the defendant’s confession, which is first made in In relation to gender, data revealed that men accused of us- the feminine participation in offences grew from the presence of the Police Commissioner and which may be re- ing illicit drugs accounted for almost the double of those accused 10% in 1993 to 30% in 1995.This growth could be (16) explained because prostitution became less well- peated later in the presence of a judge . of trafficking at the end of the eighties. On the other hand, paid due to the panic induced by AIDS and because women,globally less numerous,were doubly accused of traffick- there was a strategy of traffickers to involve women According to the due process of law that prevails in Brazil, all ing(17). In Rio de Janeiro, due to better data-collection and regis- in the networks of the illegal drug trade since they the available evidence in the cases,even when solicited by judges tering,during the mid-eighties there was a spectacular growth in were less suspicious. The lawsuits examined in- — who have all the power to do so — or by prosecutors and the number of lawsuits on illicit drug use, which increased volved women who were the head of a family, with several children from different fathers, who sold lawyers, is provided by the police.This includes the A.P.F.and all twofold between 1981 and 1986 (from 573 to 1099).In 1986 a re- dope, as they told the researchers "because they other technical proofs. The first evidence usually includes the pressive policy towards drug trafficking began.But in 1991, dur- needed to" and not "for ambition", "like men did". amount of drug the policeman said he found and his registered ing the populist government of Leonel Brizola, the number of

FORMER NEXT 81 Chapter 6 lawsuits fell to an even smaller figure (386).Trials related to traf- for use were acquitted or had their lawsuits filed in 1981,whereas fic remained stable during the decade:from 640 lawsuits in 1981, respectively 38% and 63% in 1991 received no penalty whatso- to 603 in 1986, and 502 in 1991. In other words, excepting the ever. In other words, the proportion of those condemned also year of 1991, lawsuits for use were always more numerous than grew during the decade,especially in the cases judged as crimes those related to trafficking. Women had also been, except in of traffic. 1986, prosecuted twice as often for trafficking, but their relative participation in this crime showed only a small growth during the The age of the accused also varied.In 1981, 71% of those de- decade (25%: from 46 lawsuits to 60). As regards to the crime of nounced for using illicit drugs were less than 25 years old; in use committed by women, the increase during the decade had 1986, 68%; in 1991, 47%. In 1981, 52% of them were acquitted, its peak in 1986 (76 lawsuits), when it tripled in relation to 1981 whereas in 1986, only 24% had that luck, and in 1991, only 10%. (25 lawsuits), and ended in 1991 with 46 actions. Trafficking was the charge for older men:only 25% of them were less than 25 years old in 1981 and 17% in 1991; 41% were be- The proportion of convictions also increased during the tween 26 and 30 years old.Among the women,the youngest and eighties in the city of Campinas. In 1981, 41% of those charged those not married (50% were between 18 and 25 years old, 3% with trafficking were sentenced to prison; 58% of those charged more than 40 years old and 74.3% were single) tended to be with using illicit drugs met the same fate, although with much more indicted for trafficking, whereas only 34.6% between 18 smaller penalties.In 1986,69% of the alleged traffickers were con- and 25 years old and 25.7% who were more than 40 years old victed; 49% of the alleged users followed them to the same pe- were accused for use of drugs.Thus, in the case of women, there nal institutions.In 1991,85% of traffickers and 62% of users were was a tendency to be lenient starting with the inquiry phase,not sent to prison.Therefore,less people were acquitted of the accu- only because they were women but also because of family re- sation of trafficking in all these years — in 1981, 33% were ac- sponsibilities.Nevertheless,in a predominantly white population, quitted, whereas 7.8% were in 1991.The total number of those in which only 18.3% is classified officially as black or miscegena- arrested and sent to prison represented an enormous increase: tional, 50% of the accused were white and 50% were black or from 80 people in 1981 to 400 in 1991 (Ribeiro, 1994). The mestizos. tremendous increase in lawsuits and condemnations occurred in a city that grew at an annual rate of 2.23% during the eighties, Although it is a fact — recognised by the judges,prosecutors, going from 664 559 inhabitants in 1980 to 846 084 in 1991 lawyers and public defenders interviewed by the research team (Zaluar, 1995b). — that users and traffickers come from all social classes, the indicted,whose professional qualification had been registered,on In Rio de Janeiro, a city that grew even less (1.13%), condem- the whole had low paying occupations.In fact,70% of them were nations followed a quite different flux,which also proves the im- bricklayers, low servicemen, drivers, domestic servants, cleaning portance of the judges’and other actors’subjectivity in the pro- women, manicures and prostitutes.The only exceptions to this ceedings. In 1981, 15% of the men and 20% of the women were were a few students and some rare professionals accused of us- punished for using drugs,whereas in 1991 37% of men and 25% ing illicit drugs in 1986 and 1991. Yet, not all poor men and of the women were. This fact reveals a bigger proportional women have had the same destiny in these lawsuits.Those who growth in sentencing for men than for women.As for trafficking, worked for bigger and more powerful traffickers could have convictions revealed that judges were more lenient with women lawyers who would instruct their deposition and negotiate with at the beginning of the decade, when only 32% of the indicted others also implicated in the affair in order to decide who would women were sentenced to prison whereas 47% of the men were. "assume" the drug found in the A.P.F. In 1991, condemnations for trafficking had grown to 58% for women and 62% for men.(Nevertheless,this growth was signifi- Despite the enormous repressive effort and the increased ex- cantly smaller than the one registered in Campinas).Furthermore penses,one cannot say that violence and crime have diminished 54% of those accused for trafficking and 84% of those indicted in Campinas or Rio de Janeiro.On the contrary,in Campinas there

FORMER NEXT 82 Chapter 6 was an amazing increase during the eighties in most crimes that This is how judges in Campinas explain that there are more are usually connected with drugs:theft tripled in four years;rob- acquittals of traffickers than of users.A confession of use implies bery had a 50% increase and the city acquired the reputation in the user’s conviction.Traffickers,on the other hand,never confess the media of being a violent city.With its spectacular growth in to trafficking,even when found with sizeable quantities of drugs; the rate of homicides at the end of the last decade and during the doubt remains because the material proofs are seldom clear the nineties – almost reaching that of Rio de Janeiro –,it became about whether the amount reveals trafficking or consumption. perceived as a place in which children and adolescents were Nevertheless, in the cities of Campinas and Rio de Janeiro, pros- killed as much as in the big metropolises of Rio de Janeiro and ecutors and magistrates were often caught between the defen- São Paulo. dant’s words and the policeman’s report because material proofs often do not exist.In a few cases there is proof,such as telephone The interviews with judges, prosecutors, lawyers, public de- numbers and lists of quantities,which could refer to clients,guns fenders and prisoners show the mechanisms that make the re- or material for packing small amounts of drug. When material pressive effort useless or very inefficient. Drug users would not proofs are lacking and doubts remain, magistrates affirm that give the name of the dealers from whom they had bought the they had to stick to the policeman’s report, since "the words of a drug,dealers and small traffickers would not reveal the names of shantytown dweller could not deserve the same respect".Thus, the their furnishing associates.They know that if they talk, they will credibility of the defence’s argument and the strength of the de- be killed, even inside a prison. The dealers who are "inserted fendant’s confession are not the same for all.The poorer the de- within the context" (inseridos no contexto),that is,those who be- fendant, the less believable his words are; this also applies to his long to a gang,have their lawyers paid by the trafficker who fur- witnesses when they are neighbours or colleagues.The poor de- nished them with the drug.They only say what has been previ- fendants are thus doubly hindered:their testimonies do not con- ously agreed with the lawyer, who instructs the deposition (al- vince the judge and they cannot hire a private lawyer to better though this is not legal).The independent dealer, who does not impress the judge.The comparison between the criminal courts have a stable association with a trafficker and,therefore,does not of Rio de Janeiro and Campinas indicated the permanence of receive assistance from a private lawyer,does not denounce any tensions and incoherence in the judges’ practices. Equally, de- of them for fear of being killed. He belongs to the category of fendants confessed not because confession would be the those most often condemned because they depend on the few "queen’s" proof,since it would confirm the judge’s moral certainty, over-worked public defenders. but because it denoted penitence or understanding of wrong- doings and the will to repair them, as has been suggested by Depending on the Penal Code article, different elements af- Kant de Lima (1989). In other words, they confessed in order to fect a sentence: under article 16 (use of illicit drug) it is possible obtain lighter sentences. to pay bail and respond to the lawsuit while in liberty, whereas under article 12 (traffic of illicit drug) this is impossible.The for- During the symbolic construction of the inquiry and the law- mer also has a shorter timespan for the conclusion of the case. suit, the defendant passes through different stages in which his Thus, it is not a surprise that during inquiry defendants confess moral person is being "built". Because the theme of drugs has to drug use and that the defence uses this as a strategy to obtain strong moral and emotional overtones, this construction is also a minimum penalty for the defendant.According to prosecutors, directed by the lawyer who calls witnesses to attest to the de- the period of legal preventive imprisonment (limited to a maxi- fendant’s moral integrity.But the discourses (in Campinas) in fact mum of three months) is insufficient for a thorough investigation transform the drug into a devilish thing. For a morally reliable which would include the examination of the defendant’s bank person could not be involved with such a diabolic substance.On accounts and telephone calls.From their point of view,this makes the other hand,in Rio de Janeiro,preconceived ideas about fave- it easy to manipulate the proceedings in the case of trafficking, las and the stigma of being the site of trading points for illegal since there is usually little and inconclusive material proof. drugs,make it much more arduous to defend someone who lives there.This is true even when a person is caught with very small

FORMER NEXT 83 Chapter 6 amounts of drug and accused of trafficking. However, in both These discrepancies relative to the condition of defence cities, if the defence convinces the judge that the accused is a should be combined with other recorded differences between working man, or someone who has sufficient schooling and the defendants, such as gender and colour of skin, which re- moral reliability, then he may be pardoned. According to some vealed more clemency towards specific groups:women and peo- judges, this would only happen if there is doubt about the ma- ple officially classified as whites. Such discriminations are found terial proof, which in fact is most often the case. Nevertheless, in crimes that are considered more serious and consequently they admit that when defining the time to be spent in prison the have heavier penalties. Among those accused of use, 65% were kind of drug and the amount apprehended are not as important classified as whites, whereas 35% were blacks and mestizos; as the defendant’s reputation.As one judge said in Rio de Janeiro: amongst those accused of traffic, 60% were classified as blacks "First I seek to know where the accused lives and what he does for a and mestizos,whereas 40% were whites.As far as condemnations living". For others, the most important element are the circum- for use were concerned, whites were 6% more numerous than stances in which he was arrested as told by the policeman who blacks and mestizos (56% for 44% respectively); as far as sen- detained him. tences of traffic were concerned, blacks and mestizos had a higher percentage than the whites by 26% (63% for 37%). Despite the efforts implemented by the Public Attorney and Amongst those pardoned, the variations were 56% of whites, others who freely attend poor defendants,there is not yet an egal- 44% of blacks and mestizos tried for using drugs; 55% of blacks itarian justice in Brazil.Crucial differences still exist between those and mestizos and 45% of whites tried for trafficking,explained by who can pay for private lawyers and those who can only count on the fact that 20% more blacks and mestizos were sued for traf- a overworked public attorney in the Criminal Justice system.Data ficking. from the research done in 1991 in the city of Rio de Janeiro indicate that this is one of the main factors concerning the results of In the work methods of the Brazilian Criminal Justice, consti- traffic cases. Condemnation, acquittal or classifying vary accord- tutionally based on equality, one finds substantive modes of ar- ing to whether the defence is done by a private lawyer or by a guing that are engendered after the justification of demands for public attorney.The statistics relative to the lawsuits reveal that justice and its evaluation.In these arguments,notions of honour, amongst those denounced for trafficking,57% of those who had trust and reputation — nonmaterial and non-market goods that a private lawyer (106 cases) were convicted,whereas 68% of those are not controlled by the State — are invoked during judicial dis- who were assisted by a public defender (85 cases) got a prison se- putes. These, in turn, rely on the previous arrangement (or in- tence as well.This percentile difference was even bigger for black struction) that the private lawyer has had with his client, as well and mestizo defendants:55.56% of 63 cases defended by lawyers as on the images associated with gender and colour.Thus, the for 78.85% of 52 cases defended by datives. For whites, the pro- gulf between the letter of the law and judicial practice calls for a portion was not so great:60.47% of 43 cases defended by lawyers public discussion on evaluating the criteria and rules of such as against 51.5% of 33 cases defended by natives.As far as the use practices and written codes. of drugs was concerned, 29.5% of those defended by lawyers were condemned and 41.86% of those assisted by public attorneys.However,under this article of the Penal Code there were no big inconsistencies when the defendant’s colour is correlated with the lawsuit outcome.Amongst blacks and mestizos,46% of those assisted by public attorneys were sent to prison and 6% had their actions filed,whereas 50% of those defended by lawyers had the same outcome.Amongst whites,37.5% of those defended by datives were condemned and 39% had their lawsuits filed,whereas 69% of those assisted by lawyers were acquitted and 3.7% had their cases filed.

FORMER NEXT 84 Chapter 6 Bibliography MARTINE, George.A Redistribuição Espacial da População Brasileira Durante a Década de 80, texto para discussão N° 29, IPEA, Rio de ADORNO,Sergio.Violência urbana,justiça criminal e organização so- Janeiro, 1994. cial do crime,mimeo,Núcleo de Estudos da Violência,USP,São Paulo, 1990. MESQUITA, Myriam.Homicídios de crianças e adolescentes,versão prelim.,Encontro Nacional de Produtores e Usuários de informações so ADORNO,S.;BIDERMAN,F.;FEIGUIN,D.;LIMA,R.S.O jovem e a crim- ciais,econômicas e territoriais, IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, 1996. inalidade urbana de São Paulo, SEADE — NEV/USP,São Paulo, 1995. PAIXÃO, A.L.A organização policial numa área metropolitana, em ADORNO,Theodor.Negative Dialectics,The Seabury Press:New York, Dados, vol.25, n°1, IUPERJ, Rio de Janeiro, 1982. 1973. RIBEIRO,Alexandre I.A questão do tráfico e do uso indevido de entor- ALVITO,Marcos.A honra de Acari,em Velho,G.Cidadania e Violência, pecentes, monografia de final de curso, UNICAMP,IFCH, Campinas, Editora da UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, 1996. mimeo, 1994. RIBEIRO da SILVA,R.& SABOIA, A.-L.Crianças e Adolescentes na BASTOS, Francisco Inácio.Ruína e Reconstrução, tese de doutorado, Década de 80,em Rizzini, I.(ed.), A Criança no Brasil Hoje, Editora FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, 1995. Universidade Santa Úrsula, Rio de Janeiro, 1993.

CAILLÉ, Alain.Ni holisme ni individualisme méthodologique,Marcel RICŒUR, Paul.Soi-même comme un autre.Paris: Le Seuil, 1990. Mauss et le paradigme du don,In Revue du MAUSS,N°8,2nd.semestre 1996. SALAMA,Pierre.Macro-economie de la Drogue,GREITD-CEDI,mimeo, Paris, 1993. CALDEIRA,Teresa P.City of Walls, tese de doutorado, Berkeley, 1992. SCHIRAY, Michel.Les filières-stupéfiants: trois niveaux,cinq logiques, FATELA,João.O Sangue e a Rua,Publicações D.Quixote,Lisboa,1989. em Futuribles, n° 185, Paris, mars 1994.

GEFFRAY, Christian.Rapport d'activité n° 2 du projet: Effects sociaux, SOARES,L.-E.;SÉ,João T.S;RODRIGUES,José A.S.;Piquet Carneiro,L. économiques et politiques de la pénétration du narcotrafic en Criminalidade urbana e violência: o Rio de Janeiro no contexto inter Amazonie Brésilienne, ORSTOM/ CNPq/ Museu Goeldi, 1996. nacional,Textos de Pesquisa, ISER, outubro, Rio de Janeiro, 1993.

HABERMAS, Jurgen.Pensamento Pós-metafísico,Tempo Brasileiro: SULLIVAN, Mercer. Crime and the social fabric.In: Dual City,restruc- Rio de Janeiro, 1991. turing New York.New York:Russel Sage Foundation, 1992.

KANT DE LIMA,Roberto.A cultura jurídica e as práticas policiais,em UNDCP.World Drug Repport.Londres e Nova Iorque: Oxford Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Sociais, N° 10, vol.4, 1989. University Press, 1997.

KATZ, Jack.The Seductions of Crime, Basic Books, USA, 1988. ZALUAR,A.,ALBUQUERQUE,C.& NORONHA,J.C.Pobreza não gera violência, em Ciência Hoje, Rio de Janeiro, vol.20, no.115, 1995. LAGRANGE, Hughes.La Civilité a l'épreuve: crime et sentiment d'in- ZALUAR,Alba.Condomínio do Diabo,Editora da UFRJ e Revan,Rio de sécurité, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1995. Janeiro, 1994. ______.The Drug Trade,Crime and Policies of Repression in LINS, Paulo.Cidade de Deus, Cia das Letras, São Paulo, 1997. Brazil, em Dialectic Anthropology,Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands,vol.20,p 95-108

FORMER

85 Chapter 6 - Bibliography Introduction formation on this aspect of the general drug question. Few serious studies on these subjects going beyond superficiality have DRUG TRAFFICKING, been attempted anywhere in the world and few resources have CRIMINAL been provided whereas the task requires them to be identified and in a sufficient number.Even such knowledge as that held by ORGANISATIONS, specialised departments, albeit by no means negligible, has re- MONEY LAUNDERING mained within their walls and is narrowly applied to operational AND PUBLIC POLICY purposes of prevention or else used for making purely political ON DRUG CONTROL advantage. Michel Schiray There are places, however, that have been more thoroughly investigated,and understood in greater depth.Colombia,Bolivia and Peru are a case studies,they have experienced the full flood of the drugs trade and every part of society, from peasant producers to international dealers,has been involved;they have also The most important original feature of the work undertaken produced researchers whose work is among the very best, and as part of the MOST project on drugs has been the in-depth field some of whom have paid with their lives.Thailand,Myanmar and research conducted in the various participating countries. Pakistan, have also for a number of years been producing re- Whereas the press and other media, cinema and television in- search, some of it quite outstanding in international terms.The cluded, have long made much of the world of drug trafficking, same cannot be said of Africa, where Nigeria, South Africa and scientists and university researchers have neglected this field Morocco (the main source of European cannabis), to name but where institutional support and academic legitimacy are appar- three,have failed to muster any significant research on this mat- ently lacking and the subject itself is not only murky but dan- ter.In Europe,Italy,a country known to be affected by these crim- gerous to boot.In this issue,we have presented the findings of a inal activities, has successfully fostered a remarkable process of number of local and regional studies.Many questions arise from research ancillary to — indeed blazing the way for — the cam- this research, carried out in a number of countries and based on paign by some judges against organised crime and the Mafia. the assiduous gathering of fresh empirical data, for this is a new Efforts in other European countries, also in the Netherlands, re- departure,scientifically speaking,as far as this field is concerned. mained modest until just recently, even though that country is The present contribution seeks to introduce these questions, al- regarded as the main crossroads for all illegal drug trade policies beit in a preliminary way, under a series of major headings. in Europe and is known to be at the forefront of research and social policies concerning drug addiction.The United States are the longest standing and still the most productive source of research on the subject, and indeed on economic crime in general (in- Research, the Media and Public cluding money laundering),with bodies for fact-finding and anal- Specialised Institutions: an Issue of ysis in a class of their own, enjoying means of investigation and Information at the International Level a statistical apparatus unparalleled anywhere in the world.That Along with other major branches of economic crime,the drug country is, moreover, endeavouring to have its own information trade has for some while now ranked fairly high among the pri- and data-gathering systems accepted by other countries (just as orities of international organisations,intra and intergovernmen- in earlier decades it worked to have drug-related legal instru- tal discussions,and public specialist agencies.However,the facts ments,both national and international,accepted).But it also sup- about drug trade are based on work by journalists (some of them ports in-depth research on the nature of the problem, largely of outstanding, much of them deplorable), communicated by the high quality. This research covers every continent, including media or by rumour, in the worst of conditions. Official institu- Europe. However, lavish quantities do not always amount to a tions are still extremely niggardly and touchy about sharing in- clear vision and, though there is much to be learned from these

NEXT 1 Introduction studies, we still lack the tools, the overviews, and the new, pow- pens in the typical examples of some shanty towns, or "favelas", erful insights needed if we are to make real progress in properly of Rio de Janeiro.But that moneyed influence may also have a di- assessing the phenomenon and achieving the far-reaching re- rect impact on local institutions and enterprises.The true extent flection demanded by these problems as a whole.In other words, of this is still one of the least well documented subjects but all we must take a step beyond over-technical,over-segmented ap- the cities studied in Brazil, in India, and even in China, show a proaches that, at the end, are driven by ideology. great deal of corruption in their police and court machinery and elsewhere,and the existence of companies,real or fictitious,that are a front for drug-trafficking operations or the recycling of the Geographical Levels and the Diversity proceeds.The case of the Mumbai film industry is an especially of Drug Trafficking Issues good illustration of this, with its particularly close financial links to the city’s criminal underworld. In extreme cases, in certain re- The geographical level under consideration is a determining gions where government institutions have very little capacity for factor for identifying the problems, and evaluating the conse- surveillance or intervention,we may find above-board economic quences of the drug trade for economies and societies.The work- activity and drug-trafficking operations closely intertwined,and ing and research methods will also be quite different. those engaged in illicit commerce in positions of dominance over the economic and even the political life of the locality;there At the local level, and especially in large conurbations, the are reports of this from various Amazonian states of Brazil. most strongly felt consequences are connected with drug use and drug abuse. Here, the personal and socio-medical aspects At the national, regional and international levels, the ques- loom large in the foreground but drug use and abuse are also, tions appear to be more vague,harder to pin down,and in some of course, a public safety issue, not only because of the charac- ways more complex, though doubtless ultimately more crucial. teristic behaviour of drug abusers but also because of the petty The four countries on which the studies presented here concen- crime very often associated with drug use and procurement. trate (along with the countries of southern Africa) are all large Drug trafficking, on the other hand, can produce truly violent States where the drugs trade poses serious problems but which situations, including murder, depending on the way local dis- are not really specialised in drug production like their neighbours tribution is organised. Rio de Janeiro is an example of this, but (coca derivatives in the Andean countries; opium derivatives in an extreme one that is not representative of the situation in all the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent, respectively). These large cities.When local trade is better organised (in the sense countries have considerably diversified economies but drug that it is controlled more by dealers and preventive institutions) products are still relatively marginal in terms of the overall econ- it certainly develops in a more salubrious way, and extreme omy.This is less true however if all criminal economic activities open violence, with its high social cost, is avoided. As Molly are taken into consideration,since some of those are connected charles shows in chapter 1,this seems to be the case of Mumbai with drug trafficking activities, as we shall see. (Bombay). At the national level, in all the countries studied, the organi- Also at local level, in every large city throughout the world sations or, more properly, the big operators carrying out large- there arises the question of the economic fallout from this trade. scale drug trade movements have yet to be clearly identified. It is a branch of economic activity that is becoming increasingly There have, indeed, been some impressive police seisures — as attractive for some young people facing exclusion, unemploy- many as three tonnes of cocaine, for instance, in Brazil, a seisure ment,or,more generally,world-class models of success and con- that may have led to the undoing of one particular network, or- sumerism.This is confirmed, today, in most urban surroundings. ganised from Rio de Janeiro,sourcing in Bolivia for final destina- In any large city, in disadvantaged neighbourhoods where the tions in the United States and in Europe, with operators estab- State is markedly absent,drug dealers manage to convert the in- lished in Amazonia and companies to front some of the trading fluence of their money into naked power,sometimes armed,with operations in a number of Brazilian states.But these are most of- which they dominate social and community life.This is what hap- ten ad hoc organisations, even though their members may be

FORMER NEXT 2 Introduction more permanently committed to developing these activities, as shown in the example of the city of São Paulo, and others. while constantly changing partners.Probably they are numerous Sometimes,also,drug trafficking is associated with other activ- and are set up a new for each operation, usually making them ities which are quite legal: as one example from Amazonia very hard to identify. Some cases, such as those illustrated here shows, in poorly policed territories where the boundaries be- from São Paulo, also reveal the existence of well-identified long- tween the licit and the illicit are fluid in the extreme, such dis- term international criminal organisations establishing them- tinctions have virtually lost all meaning, the same groups may selves in various countries, in association with local partners, a act both as major players in the above-board local economy phenomenon also found in India and in China.In Mumbai,for in- and as major drug traders.We also find, at all stages of the ma- stance, many criminal groups and their bosses are reasonably jor drug-trading chains, genuine and quite legally constituted well known : not only are they deeply rooted in the local econ- enterprises — alongside front companies — which provide omy and,sometimes,supported by politicians,but they have also cover,as well as the actual logistics,for the transport and distri- managed to build up an international circle of contacts, extend- bution of these products.This is even more in evidence in the ing not only to organisations in producer countries (in particular case of the next phase of drug trafficking as of other criminal Afghanistan and Pakistan),but also to other regions of the world activities: the recycling of the profits, and the money launder- where they maintain networks for distribution overseas. ing carried out through financial institutions and within the "official" economy.

The Drug Trade and However, criminal organisations come in a great variety of Criminal Activities: forms.In Mumbai,as we shall see,many have historically grown Diversity of Organisational Forms up on the basis of different ethnic groups from the hinterland, with chiefs and a kind of hierarchy, although there has to be The drug trade,above a certain scale of transactions,is very some degree of flexibility in the way they actually function. largely organised nowadays by criminal groups or networks as Between these groups there are understandings — as there a rule engaged in many other forms of activity.They may spe- must be — for sharing out territories and activities, but com- cialise for a while, but each specialised activity tends over time petition, sometimes violent, remains the rule. In Rio de Janeiro, to become associated with the others in a comprehensive four "horizontal" organisations are said to contend — occa- range of illicit or criminal activities: drug trafficking is one sionally,as we know,with extreme violence — for control of the earner among many, though a particularly lucrative one in re- points of supply to the local dealers in the favelas.Nonetheless cent decades, as the consumption of these products has risen. these forms of organisation can mostly be regarded as net- These associations differ from situation to situation, and from works for mutual assistance and criminal association, often ad one world region to another. On the borders of Brazil, India, hoc, among small, locally based groups: there is nothing to in- China and Mexico,and also in southern Africa,the drug trade is dicate any structured character to these organisations, no sign generally linked with the smuggling of gold,rare minerals,pre- of stable hierarchies or long-established leaders capable of im- cious stones, arms, or more banal products. In Brazilian posing their control on these activities,despite the periodic and Amazonia,this linkage even takes the form of bartering cocaine repeated reappearance of the same names. Likewise, in for stolen goods including cars, trucks and aircraft. In large ur- Guangzhou, China, a variety of small organisations struggle for ban centres, for instance in Brazil or in India, drug (and, often, the local market or the through traffic to the rest of the coun- arms) dealing, armed robberies (of banks, armoured cars or in- try or even abroad. Some of them are directly linked with the dividuals),car theft,dealing in stolen goods,kidnapping and ex- major criminal organisations operating from Hong Kong; oth- tortion rackets may all be mounted by one and the same group, ers are based on ethnic minorities; and some have a clan type in turn or according to season,concentrating on one speciality of organisation, on what is essentially a family basis: these are or another as opportunities present themselves. We also fre- more or less specialised,among themselves.Each of these three quently find an association with promoters of forbidden and examples constitutes a particular, original model of organisa- clandestine sports or gambling (traditional or more modern), tion in major cities.

FORMER NEXT 3 Introduction The example given in this part of the Report from São Paulo the external balance of payments, but also the rules, standards, introduces another dimension. Alongside a fairly traditional or- regulations and laws which govern the functioning of that econ- ganisation comprising small groups that share out the city’s mar- omy.The examples here from Brazilian Amazonia show how, in ket and territory,whether for retail distribution or bulk sourcing, situations where there is little supervision by government insti- large international organisations move in and operate in the city, tutions, the presence, withdrawal or re-routing of this trade can using it as an intermediate depot for supplying their interna- enable whole medium-sized towns to develop or cause them to tional trade but also, most strikingly, for developing new illegal falter. In such places the redistribution of the profits involved activities funded by the profits from this traffic.They move in and may also sustain large sections of a region’s economy or firms penetrate these cities in conjunction with local organisations belonging to the officially recognised economy.Together with with the means of influencing government circles, up to the the proceeds of other criminal activities, they swell the funds in highest at state and even federal level.This is obviously an ex- these regions’ financial and banking systems in an utterly dis- tremely important example, which it is not easy to duplicate: it proportionate way, as compared with official endowments. In touches on those parts of the drug trade’s organisation that are Guangzhou and Shenzhen,in the Chinese region of Guangdong, the hardest to identify, even for the police and judiciary — and, farmers and fishermen have committed themselves to this of course, harder still for academic researchers.These high-level trade, selling off part of their inheritance.They form part of the dealing situations tend not to be a matter of stable or visible or- migrant and transitory urban populations who have used their ganisations like those operating in city neighbourhoods.They ancient economic and social bases to engage in illegal activities may indeed involve large organisations; but these are mostly and grow rich from them. In the great metropolitan conurba- one-off operations, based on constantly shifting networks that tions,drug money can make a considerable difference to neigh- are accordingly hard to get to know and to locate.The flexibility, bourhoods, indeed to whole city districts. While we must be suppleness and swiftness of these associations are all factors that careful not to exaggerate the real scale of the wealth that the these ventures depend on for success.The preferred way of set- trade has distributed in Rio de Janeiro, it cannot be denied that ting up and operating these ad hoc organisations gives them a redistribution is taking place, above all in the favelas, and that a precarious,provisional,short-lived and contingent character,but great many small enterprises and properties have been acquired they rely on networks of more stable — often, very long-lasting from this income source: the inventories of goods owned by — relationships.Getting to know and understand how such net- some of the largest dealers known provides evidence of this. In works function, especially as they involve public servants, re- Mumbai, the examples quoted here show still more clearly the quires deep and prolonged study only possible for agencies truly links between criminal organisations and dealers and the real specialised in gathering,updating and managing information.In estate business, commerce and manufacturing (and especially fact these more stable networks represent the foundation or film studios).These criminal organisations and dealers also op- breeding ground of what we might call criminal ventures,usually erate in the development of traditional, unofficial, banking sys- short-lived themselves in terms of their actual operations. tems that mirror the official ones and are also linked with the trade in gold and precious stones. The researcher sees even more clearly here than in Rio de Janeiro that these links between Economic and Social Consequences "white collar" criminal activity and the organised crime are of the Drug Trade opening up far larger areas for its expansion. In Rio de Janeiro, as in São Paulo, it really does seem very difficult to identify the The economic effects of the drug trade, linked as it often is top levels of the trade’s organisation, including those parts of to other criminal activities,may be assessed in a number of ways. the trade involving foreign transactions,certainly the most prof- The example of Colombia, without doubt the most thoroughly itable parts.This demonstrates the researcher’s main difficulty studied in the world, shows how large a part of this sector can in this area and is connected with the obstacles encountered by play in the national economy of a large country, affecting not police and court investigators when they address certain busi- only employment, incomes, investments (both productive and ness and political circles in their society,not excepting their cen- otherwise), commerce, economic property, financial flows and tral State institutions. The very recent Brazilian Parliamentary

FORMER NEXT 4 Introduction Commission of Inquiry (CPI) into the narcotics trade,conducted litically or ideologically inspired,and all too typical of pronounce- at federal level,is most revealing in this connection:over 800 in- ments on these obscure matters.A number of the articles here are dividuals were declared suspect at the conclusion of this inquiry, quite insistent on that score.Yet it is clear that nowadays these which lasted almost two years. In a large number of cases the matters strike at the very core of our economies and societies. people involved were what could definitely be classified as "white collar", including a number of members of the Federal Of all the social consequences of the drug trade, the atten- Legislature and a larger number of elected State officials.The list, dant violence and the threat to public safety in certain areas are however, of those from the country’s two great urban centres, certainly the two paid the closest and most concentrated at- Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo,seems extremely short,and no fin- tention by the government authorities and the public.They are ger was pointed at any truly significant business or political fig- particularly acute in large cities but the situation varies from ures.We should observe that in these two cities the main court place to place.In Rio de Janeiro it is still thought,as the chapter cases, in terms of traffic quantities, have been instituted from here says, that drug trafficking is behind the majority of homi- outside,via Interpol or the specialist agencies of other countries. cides (the city’s homicide rate is one of the highest in the coun- One of the biggest cases in the country did indeed concern an try). That would appear not to be the case in São Paulo: al- operator based in Rio de Janeiro, but the criminal investigation though that city has reached a similar high level of violence,the was conducted in Amazonia and certain other states, and con- connection with drugs seems to apply to a much smaller pro- centrated on the organisation’s local agents in those regions.The portion of it.In Rio de Janeiro,the favelas,thought to shelter the main operator, in Rio de Janeiro, was in fact questioned in New main supply sources of products for the local market, are gen- York; the CPI inquiry left aside anything which might implicate erally considered to be highly dangerous places owing to the the Rio de Janeiro organisation.One cannot help noticing a cer- presence of the dealers. In São Paulo, on the other hand, the tain paralysis of the national institutions when it comes to tak- "scenes" which concentrate on distributing the town’s material ing action at the level of the country’s central authorities.This is are not regarded as places of danger, even though the traffick- obviously an enthralling subject for a researcher to investigate, ing does disturb the life of the neighbourhoods.In Mumbai’s in- and one that would be very useful in terms of understanding ternal distribution,even though criminal groups also make use and state intervention. of force in precise circumstances and at restricted places and times, observers do not report a high level of general violence; It therefore remains difficult to assess the economic impact of nor do they in Guangzhou, despite the existence there of ma- the organisation and deals at the top level of the trade.It is worth jor criminal groups whose internal organisation is regarded as pointing out the considerable discrepancy between the informa- "militarized". None of these cities is reported to have a single tion gathered directly by police,judicial or parliamentary investi- structured organisation controlling the trade’s operations,able gations (and,naturally,by researchers) and some of the figures is- to keep violence down (or, where needed, to increase it) in the sued by official, specialist financial institutions — in Brazil for in- carrying on of the trade, even though this might be predicted stance, these have given the press indications of quite colossal from a logical development of the market and its profits. In amounts — which we shall not reproduce here, and which are in these situations, all of which seem to be competitive, the dif- all probability quite out of proportion — for the real situation of ferences in the level of violence seem instead to be a sign of a drug money laundering handled by banking and financial insti- certain capacity among the various active criminal groups for tutions,essentially in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.Undoubtedly, mutual understanding and sharing out territory and activities; the analysis of this discrepancy needs to be one of the cardinal they also arise from differences in the ways — lawful or unlaw- points for a researcher seeking to re-establish a modicum of con- ful — in which official repressive institutions intervene.These cordance between the microeconomic data emerging from pre- are matters we need to know more about and to understand ventive checks and the results of macroeconomic exercises re- better. However, the extreme violence and insecurity linked quired for international data-collecting.If that concordance is not with the drug trade may bear more diffusely but still more achieved,the wildest assertions will pass uncontested,leaving us heavily on the regions of transit, away from the major centres. subject to every imaginable form of "news" manipulation — po- This is shown by some extreme examples in Brazilian Amazonia,

FORMER NEXT 5 Introduction where not only is the State unable to ensure proper public or- sometimes over long periods.Institutional intervention also con- der, but also some of its own representatives themselves concentrates on the most visible parts (in certain designated areas, trol,or are connected with,criminal organisations for their own especially) or those that are most readily controlled (at border profit, and even use their legal monopoly of violence for their posts,for instance),whereas the major parts of these activities’or- own ends. ganisation and profit are, of course, the most hidden ones. Police institutions are compartmentalised,often indeed competing with Other evident and particularly serious aspects are confirmed each other, making it harder to pool knowledge gained in the by a number of these inquiries, and backed up by details: they field.Still more serious,the all too frequently arbitrary practices of concern the attractiveness of drug-trafficking operations,along- preventive institutions,their corruption and even,at times,the di- side other criminal activities, to disadvantaged population rect involvement of some of their representatives in criminal ac- groups who have great difficulty entering the labour market, tivities, may of course give reason to doubt the information that even the informal one. In Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai and can be gathered from such sources on the real situation of these Guangzhou, but also in smaller cities and towns in the interior, it activities.This only adds to the importance and value of research is especially the young people from poor neighbourhoods,with- efforts that impartially bring together and reconstruct all the in- out access to school and apprenticeship systems,or dispossessed dividual items of information from varied sources and different migrants from the interior,who associate most directly with crim- times, and try to establish a coherent, connected account of the inal elements, for want of access to any proper legal place in the way these activities are actually organised. economy.The attraction is frequently reinforced by the increasingly rapid spread of global models of consumption and certain Still more than that,what these studies show,in their analysis lifestyles to which these activities are believed to open the door. of the economic and social aspects of the drug trade,is that con- But beyond these highly typical situations, what these studies trol policies cannot be confined to isolated preventive opera- emphatically confirm is that venturing into criminal activity is tions,but could be part of a wider system of intervention also ad- something that may also be done by people from all sectors of dressing all the most glaringly pressing questions,such as on the the population,from the middle classes right up to the top of the one hand the development of disadvantaged neighbourhoods social scale,at each level breaking down the barriers between le- and regions,support for full access to the economy by the weak- gality and illegality,throughout society.While this phenomenon est population groups — such as certain young or migrant peo- may not really be new, with the new opportunities of markets ple and, on the other hand, a more enlightened control of finan- and profit it represents a central rift in the handling of economic cial movements in the banking and tax systems, and the activi- and social development, on an international scale and as such ties of some companies.Together,these two sets of questions of- deserves in-depth consideration. fer a great range,and this shows how diffuse a phenomenon economic crime really is and how, far from standing "on its own", it tends to permeate the whole of society.That is what the present Research Questions in the Field issue sets out to illustrate. of Public Control Policies The experience gained in research with police or court institutions engaged in combating trafficking and criminal activities clearly shows the limitations of control policies when they are too strictly based on the most obvious,conventional form of prevention.Such institutions,too narrowly preoccupied with operational matters, find it hard to understand the organisation of these activities as a whole.Police intervention,and that of the courts,is on a case-by-case basis,whereas the pattern of development of criminal organisations and networks is dynamic and continuous,

FORMER

6 Introduction chapter 1 from a feudal to a bureaucratic and to a fluid structure. We also THE BOMBAY look into the reasons why people enter the world of crime,though UNDERWORLD: we do not provide any conclusive answer to this question. A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT AND ITS Thus we find in this preliminary study that it is desirable for ROLE IN DRUG TRADE policy makers to examine whether each of their major economic policies promote or control the emergence and survival of Molly Charles, K.S Nair, non-state actors including OCGs. Likewise, it is clear that aca- Gabriel Britto and A. A. Das demic institutions have to systematically study OCGs and provide relevant and up to date information to policy makers.

The Context The Drug problem has been the focus of different interna- Introduction tional bodies and deliberations since 1912. The Single Convention in 1961 principally codified the international moni- This chapter presents a descriptive account of the Bombay toring of the cultivation of cannabis, poppy and coca and the (now, Mumbai) underworld. As an exploratory study, it provides prohibition of the non-medicinal use of these substances and only a broad picture of the growth of the Bombay underworld, their derivatives. The year 1971 saw the Convention on referred to, from this point, as Organised Crime Groups or OCG. Psychotropic substances.On the whole,the effort was to reduce It touches upon the major landmarks that determined its struc- the supply of and demand for narcotics drugs and psychotrop- ture, activities, nexuses at the institutional level that supported ic substances. Intelligence officers, enforcement personnel, doc- its growth, and operations. It also provides insights into the tors and ex-addicts have worked closely in this field. A call was lives of the gangsters. Primary data were collected through made at the Vienna Convention in 1988 to social scientists to interviews with key informants; secondary data were culled get involved in this issue by launching multi-disciplinary studies from 250 court judgments under the Narcotic Drugs and to understand the various dimensions of this problem. Efforts Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act), newspaper clippings were also made to introduce laws to confiscate money earned over a period of 15 years, and magazine articles. by drug trafficking. The UN held a special general assembly in 1998 to develop parameters to prevent the money-laundering This chapter proposes that the underworld in Bombay activities of drug traffickers. emerged as a result of various government policies, unmet needs of citizens due to various system failures in governance, Till recently,only street level peddlers and addicts have been as well as other socioeconomic changes in the city, inside and incarcerated under various drug laws. Our current focus is outside the country. It also tentatively suggests that there is a understanding organised crime groups which are the back- gray zone in our economy where crime and legitimate enter- bone of the trafficking problem. This research is part of the prise merge. Thus the underworld is a self-sustaining phe- UNESCO-MOST programme on drug trafficking and its connec- nomenon and cannot be wished away. It may change its prod- tion with socio-economic transformations. uct line, substitute one group for another, but operate, it will. There is hardly any social science research on organised We analyse organised crime groups (OCGs) to determine crime in India. The limited number of studies available are his- whether they are bureaucratic, feudal or any other, in structure. toric in nature (cf.Das, 1994). We seek to understand the social From our findings we can say that Bombay’s OCGs have moved phenomenon of OCGs in India to bring about change in the

NEXT 7 Chapter 1 methods used in dealing with it. We indicate that socio-eco- were used to sharpen, or venture into, new areas of inquiry. nomic transformations are happening,and will continue to hap- Thus,we referred to existing research results only at the stage of pen; the State, as an agent, has some role in making things hap- writing the report, citing them in different parts of the paper pen although it can not control everything. One of them is the along with our data(1). emergence of OCGs including their dealings in drugs.

This chapter points out that several government policies Crime intended to promote industries,to prevent the drain on foreign exchange etc., have had the unintended consequence of pro- Popular perception of crime often varies from that of the moting OCGs in Bombay. Moreover, the ineffectiveness of some establishment's. As early as in 1842 Karl Marx drew our atten- of the institutions of governance,and the neglect of certain section to how civil law or liberal legislations infringe upon the cus- tors, have contributed to the growth and strength of OCGs. tomary rights of the poor "based on hybrid intermediate forms of Hence academic institutions have to systematically study OCGs property" without creating an alternative framework. He eluci- to provide inputs to policy makers who should examine the dates his thesis with the example of the dissolution of monas- potential influence of each economic policy they introduce in teries. To quote Marx, "The monasteries were abolished. Their promoting or controlling non-state actors and OCGs. property was secularized, and it was right to do so. But the accidental support, which the poor found in the monasteries, was not This chapter seeks to present some answers to the following replaced by any other private source of income. …the monasteries questions: received some compensation, but the poor who lived by the . Why is it important to study OCGs in India? monasteries were not compensated" (Das. 1994). Similar situation . Under what circumstances OCGs emerge, evolve and impinged on tribal populations in the wake of the Forest Act. prosper? Despite innumerable revolts, rebellions and other mass move- . What is the structure and functioning of OCGs? ments of tribal populations, more and more of the rights of . Why do people enter the world of crime? indigenous peoples are being taken away in the name of "development" activities but there is hardly any debate on This chapter is a result of a larger study on socio-economic whether this kind of denuding of traditional rights is a crime or transformations in selected parts of India since the Indian inde- not. In the definition of the establishment, the protests of tribal pendence. It describes their linkages to organised crime groups people were and are crimes; from the perception of tribal peo- (OCGs), the creation of a parallel economy, and drug trafficking. ple, these are efforts to protect their rights. In the second part we provide reasons for the study of OCGs in India by social scientists by showing that OCGs are powerful At particular historical junctures crime becomes politics — it entities with vast economic power, and that they have attained can be a prologue to a conscious and articulate resistance by sustainability. The third section presents the growth of OCGs in the dispossessed (Das. 1994).The struggles, protests and violent Bombay while the fourth focuses on the structure and func- actions of the people in Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and other tioning of OCGs. Finally, using primary data, the fifth section places reflect a scenario where crime becomes politics. What is examines the world of actors in OCGs. crime for the establishment is a symbol of struggle for political and civil rights by a whole set of "nationalities" or races.

Theoretical Framework But large scale crimes are committed by conformists rather than challengers of the establishment.This we find to be true in We began our data collection without any preconceived Bombay (Das, 1994, p. 2877). What is defined as a heinous crime deductive scheme. Our findings evolved through the process of at a particular point in time and place is a function of many fac- research. Insights gained in the initial and subsequent phases tors. Crime and its definitions are indications of the changing

FORMER NEXT 8 Chapter 1 relations between the citizen and the State especially in the son of a highly respected Member of Parliament was arrested realm of regulating social behaviour. under it.Currently, strong protests have been made against the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) because The colonial state separated the criminal from the rest of a major diamond trader has been arrested under it along with society and punished, reformed and controlled him through a film producer.Let us take the so called non-performing assets police action and imprisonment.This they did by making a set of (NPAs) of nationalised banks in India. These are mostly monies neat legal categories of criminals such as "goondas", "dacoits", taken as loans from banks by the industry and business "criminal tribes", etc. The Bengal Government’s Goonda Act of tycoons. They do not repay these loans and the banks report 1926 made it mandatory for the police to maintain files on con- them as NPAs. The amount of money involved is phenomenal: victed or suspected deviants of a broad spectrum ranging from over 15,000 millions USD. How could this happen without the thieves, gamblers, pickpockets, smugglers, toughs and cocaine collusion and corruption among the directors of these banks dealers to political activists.The purpose of the Act was to force- and at lower levels? There is a political tolerance towards this fully drive them out of Calcutta.This is to create an image of the kind of fraud of such proportions. This level of corruption man as brought up outside the sphere of normal society — to among the society's elites certainly makes the society vulnera- ostracize them. In the process, the goonda is defined as someone ble to OCGs. not only expendable and undesirable but also outside the worthy citizen-community whom the police is to protect. The same The use of violence, coercion and physical threat is the trait image still survives (Das, 1994). This is the kind of effort being that determines what is acceptable and what is not.The activi- made now against organised criminal groups (OCGs). ties of business and industrial captains are kept out of the purview of criminal law. That is one of the main reasons why the Money Laundering (Prevention) Bill has been stalled and Organised Crime sent to a select committee of Parliamentarians for review. The Interpol defines an OCG as "a drug enterprise or group of people engaged in a continuing illegal activity which has as its pri- The Locale of the Study mary purpose the generation of profits irrespective of national boundaries" (Internet: OC Home Page, 1998). Bombay evolved as an important place for trade and commerce during the British regime in India because of its location In the last two decades, some of the OCGs have been tar- and the frequent attacks on Surat (then an important port), by geted in a similar manner in Bombay.The people who defraud- the Marathas. The period 1735-1813 saw the modernisation of ed the investors of over a billion USD (Harshad Mehta scam; the Bombay Shipyard and the restructuring of its dockyard to Ketan Parekh scam) or those involved in major corruption support growing maritime activities with Persia, the Arabian cases (A senior politician who was involved in a major scandal, Gulf, Africa and China (Dwivedi, S. et al., 1995). the present Chief Minister of Tamilnadu who has been convicted on two corruption charges) are not treated in the same way The Calcutta and Bombay ports exported opium.Opium was as Varadarajan, Chota Rajan, Haji Mastan or Dawood Ibrahim a major commodity for trade between India and China, under- who are (were) heads of OCGs. Not much explanation is given taken especially to restore the trade balance of the British when numerous ‘encounter killings’ are carried out by the Empire. In 1785, the East India Company was buying and selling police — all that they have to claim is that the people killed fifteen million pounds weight of China tea per year. Britain had were members of one or the other OCG. The Terrorist and to pay for her tea with silver and gold. It sent to the East Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act — details are given (between 1710 and 1759) a sum of 26,833,614 Sterling Pounds below — was not repealed despite numerous protests by right in silver and gold, and only 9,248,306 Sterling Pounds in goods. thinking people but was repealed when a leading film star, a It is this trade imbalance that led to the opium trade. To meet

FORMER NEXT 9 Chapter 1 the Chinese strong demand for opium, the British enforced were migrants from up country; they earned their livelihoods opium cultivation in its provinces in India (Beeching, 1975, as labourers, carters, and coolies, constituting a permanent Charles 1998). In the year 1884, around 5,670 tons of opium was volatile social group. These aspects of Calcutta’s social map exported to China (Fabre, G., 1998). In this trade, not only the contributed in varying degrees to the creation of the city’s East India Company but also their Indian trade associates made goonda world. Bombay too has a similar situation — skyscrap- a huge profit. Kosambi (1994) cites the example of the Parsee ers stand side by side with sprawling slums where the poor community as one of the groups that prospered through opium live. trade. Farooqui (1998) has done a detailed study on the role opium trade had played in the formation of capital in Western India. His list of 123 indigenous opium merchants/firms based in Limited Space Bombay, 116 firms based in Gujarat/Rajasthan and operating Bovenkerk (1992) in Anuradha, 1999(a), focused on the ille- independently of the British between 1803-1830 is a useful start- gal functions of OCGs.They fulfill society’s need for illegal goods ing point for further research. Since smuggling as an economic and services and provide a temporary solution to the problems enterprise began almost two centuries ago in Bombay, it is not overlooked by the political administration. Two centuries ago, surprising that Bombay continues to be a paradise for smug- Bombay was seven islands which have been connected to be glers. what it is today. Thus space is limited. The government passed several laws on the housing sector which gave rise to OCGs. The Rent Control Act is a welfare measure to the middle and other Vulnerability of Bombay salaried classes and a protection against rapacious landlords. However, without a clause for periodic fair revision of rents and Bombay is vulnerable to crime for many reasons. There is a maintenance costs, and the tardy progress of lawsuits in India, it marked weakening of the bonds of kinship as a result of the created a kind of system failure. This has not yet been addressed. practical disappearance of extended families.The decline of the OCGs effectively, if unjustly most of the times, provided the solu- social significance of the family; the undermining of the tradition. Persistent, prolonged failure of systems of governance makes tional basis of social solidarity and the erosion of traditional the system vulnerable and makes way for non-state actors such as methods of social control,together contribute to alienation and the OCGs. crime in this city. Almost all OCGs in Bombay have been sorting out tenant- City of Contrasts landlord problems. Chota Rajan’s group for instance undertook Gamini Salgado (in Das, 1994) makes a link between different activities to maintain his stronghold in underworld London’s social structure and the rise of Elizabethan under- extortion, smuggling and drug trade. The protection money world. London then was a place of vivid contrast. London paid to his gang by builders has increased. One builder stated offered far greater opportunity for beggary and fraud than the "we can not do business in India, if we do not pay" (Times of India, rest of England. The chances of arrest were very low. For the 1994 ; Balakrishnan, 1995; Balakrishnan, 1995 and Thevar, 1997). London underworld appears to have had its own security and Karim Lala entered the world of real estate and construction intelligence network which were more than a match for the industry; he provided muscle power to builders and landlords rudimentary and quasi amateur police force which was all the wanting speedy settlement of tenancy issues outside the court. city could boast (cf. Das, 1994). Das found that a similar contrast in Calcutta facilitated the emergence of the underworld Why was there such a tolerance of OCG intervention in the in that city in the 1920s. Calcutta had sharp class and racial real estate sector on the part of the administration? It could divides : the white locality was juxtaposed with the native area have been because of many reasons: may be there was much and the stately mansions of Marwaris and Bengalis stood money to be made by its different segments; maybe, if the against unhealthy slums. Seventy per cent of the population salaried classes spent only a small proportion of their incomes

FORMER NEXT 10 Chapter 1 on housing, they would constitute a large consumer market, ly to indulge in criminal activities to survive and OCGs may they can purchase goods and services produced by the indus- emerge in the process. Demographic analysis and employment try. But it is more probable that the legitimacy of laws govern- profiles of different communities, if done on a continuous basis, ing the housing sector had lost legitimacy among the and if corrective measures are consciously taken to include such elite/propertied classes. But democratic processes do not per- communities, crime prevention efforts will have a chance to mit the lawmakers to change these laws for the simple reason succeed. that tenants are a larger vote bank compared to property owners.Thus there appears to be a compromise: we will not change Restructuring the law; we will look the other way, if you use your own meth- Industrial restructuring in Bombay in the mid 1970s had a ods to increase the value of your property by evicting tenants. profound impact on Bombay. Mehta (2000) conducted a rapid One can predict that until this dilemma is resolved,OCGs will flour- study of this economic process as part of our study.The findings ish in all urban areas. There is a judge who has been arrested in are presented in a separate paper titled "Criminalisation of Mumbai on the charge of using an OCG to evict tenants from his Labour in Bombay" which indicates some aspects of OCGs in property. This is an on-going case. It is symptomatic of the cor- Bombay. With the rapid move to globalise the Indian economy, rosion of the system. liberalisation of imports and a de facto abrogation of many labour laws (enshrining rights of the working class won over Migration several decades of struggles), there is bound to be a vast Bombay’s growth as a place of trade and commerce encour- increase in crime and in the strength of OCGs. aged migration from within and outside the country since the colonial period. Bombay offered various avenues for employ- Nationally, the manufacturing sector has stagnated. There ment: the docks, the railways, the port, the mills and business has been only a minor rise — from 10.7% of the workforce in enterprises.With the partition of the country, Karachi port went 1993-94 to 11.1% in 1999-2000 — in the manufacturing sector to Pakistan. Large investments were therefore made to improve which was also concentrated in urban areas. The growing the Bombay port to make it the main port of entry and exit for employment sectors are in construction and "trade, hotels and India's trade with the West. Many of the OCGs in Bombay have restaurants", the latter employing 41 million people as com- had their core activities based in and around the port area. pared to 43 million in manufacturing (Omvedt, 2001). In Bombay, there has been a strong link between OCGs and the What can we say about migration? The Constitution of India real estate sector.There are several indications showing that the offers the right to free movement as a fundamental right.India is bar and restaurant sector is also periodically subjected to extor- not China. Wherever massive investments are made as in tion by OCGs in Bombay; shoot outs have occurred in them; Bombay, wherever economic opportunities open up as it did in some of these bars are or have been owned by OCGs either Bombay, people with or without appropriate skills move in. directly or by proxies. Members of OCGs often patronize them Given the stark differentials in intra-state and inter-state levels of (Britto, 1997). Sleazy bars mushroom with police's blessings. development, migration to many places which promise prosper- There are links between law-enforcer and bar owners. Sleazy ity takes place. Besides, urbanisation is an inexorable process bars have mushroomed all over the city in the last ten years. since the policy makers have neglected rural areas in all but the Some of them remain open till 4 a.m. Some policemen are first five-year plans. known to be regulars at some of the bars. Says a bar owner, "policemen conduct occasional raids in a beer bar.But it is just eye- It must be noted that migration per se does not create OCGs. wash. They threaten bar owners and extort huge sums". "I was fed It is not our case that only migrants get into or form OCGs. The up of policemen regularly coming to my bar on a motorcycle.They profile of different OCGs of Bombay would repudiate such always came in mufti and were pleased to carry back a wadful of notion.We can only state that if among the migrants any group notes with them", alleges Jamshed Irani, who owned a stake in gets left out of integration into the legal economy, they are like- the Mastana Beer Bar in Tardeo. "Nobody can run a beer bar in

FORMER NEXT 11 Chapter 1 Mumbai without being in league with the police, specially the con- Bombay today is a world of risk and uncertainty, of individual stables on beat patrolling", he added. Mr.Irani also alleged that choice and pluralism and of a deep-seated precariousness, both certain policemen have benami stakes in some of the bars. "The economic and ontological. Suicide among professionals (doc- policemen have ill-gotten wealth, which they invest in beer bars". tors, chartered accountants, share brokers) is on the rise. Police Commissioner M.N.Singh did not deny the possibility of his men being corrupt. "There could be a possibility of certain According to the strain theory of Robert Merton (1968) in policemen being in league with bar owners… Such policemen will "Firestone, 1997", Crime and vice constitute a "normal" have some "mutual understanding" with bar owners so that it ben- response to a situation where the cultural emphasis upon efits both of them. However, you cannot single out policemen for pecuniary success has been absorbed, but where there is little corruption.There are several other departments or areas which are access to conventional and legitimate means for becoming more corrupt", the police chief stated (The Time of India 30th successful. Arlacchi too opines: "High unemployment rate, that March 2001). targets the less favored population, the absence of government measures to counteract this, the gap between the disfavored and the consumer model, valorization of economic success and low Globalisation and Liberalisation possibilities to access resources through legal means, all these combine together to favor the development of a criminal labour The process of liberalisation and globalisation began in the force" (Arlacchi as cited in Fabre, 1998). Further discussion on 1980s ; a period which saw the criminalisation of the labour this is in the section on why people enter the world of crime. force. To become competitive internationally and nationally, a large-scale process (of industrial reorganisation, closure of fac- Today an unfair situation controls the race to achieve and tories, etc.) was set in motion in Bombay. Transformation of the be someone. We have a large number of spectators, who are labour market included streamlined production in the manu- denied real access to the race but are the viewers of the glit- facturing industry with the de-skilling of labour and the stress tering prizes on offer. The fact that opportunities to the race on the flexibility of the workforce. Another tactic is "out-sourc- are available with little relationship to talent and price makes ing" of labour to small firms or freelance personnel. Similar it evenmore unequal. While the have-nots are scrounging, changes have affected the service sector as well, with comput- those at the top, the privileged, are seen as part of a "winner erisation; many firms are able to eliminate whole layers of takes all" where prizes are doled out without thought of justi- white-collar workers creating insecurity even among those who fication or merit. This scenario is a natural recipe for dissatis- earlier felt secure. faction (Young, 1999). The combination of relative deprivation and individualism is a potent cause for crime in a situation With trade liberalisation gaining momentum since 1991,prac- where no political solutions are possible.To deal with this per- tically thousands of goods have been put under the Open ceptually, there is a move towards keeping the "out-group", General License for imports. Hence the OCGs need to identify who can be made "scapegoats". other commodities to profit from. Smuggling of computer hard- ware and software, pharmaceuticals, gems and precious stones, The present period in Bombay can be seen as one where the guns and trafficking in women and children and drugs are said to trend is to exclude, as against the move towards inclusion earli- be of interest to OCGs of Bombay in the post-control-permit era. er, through assimilation and incorporation.The rise of Shiv Sena party in Bombay was a direct outcome of the political mobilisa- Liberalisation and globalisation have profound social impli- tion strategy of attacking south Indians, demanding jobs for cations in places like Bombay. The market forces they unleash sons of the soil and such exclusionist processes (Mehta, 2000). have transformed the spheres of production and consumption The rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party, comes hand in hand with relentlessly. Economic policies are challenging notions of mate- their attempt, with the help of their supporters, to consolidate rial certainty, uncontested values, and the resultant security. the Hindu vote bank as a block by creating a communal schism

FORMER NEXT 12 Chapter 1 excluding the Muslims and other minorities. Such a strategy of Though TADA was repealed, the Government of political mobilization is a function of perceived/real decline in Maharashtra passed another equally powerful Bill,(Maharashtra economic opportunities and of competitive politics of democ- Control of Organised Crime Bill), in 1999. racy especially in the consolidation of "other backward classes" and their powerful entry into the corridors of power. Some of its provisions are: . Confession to a police officer of the rank of superintendent of police and recorded by him may serve as evidence. Impact of OCGs on Society This clause was also provided in the TADA. . Authorizes telephone tapping.The grounds for allow- Why should anyone in India attempt to study the structure ing it are, broadly, "probable" cause for belief in the culpability and functioning of OCGs? It is because of the impact they have of the individual and in the use of the facility for commission of on society in general and on the systems of governance. In this crime.The order or approval must state the reasons and set out section, we make a preliminary statement based on secondary the details-person, location of communication facilities, type of data on the subject. However, a full-fledged research is needed communication to be intercepted, etc. to present the details with reliable data.We present our reasons . In case of any complaint of torture by the detainee,the per- for the study of OCGs under the following headings: son shall undergo a medical examination before a medical officer not lower in rank than that of an assistant civil surgeon. . Erosion of civil liberties . Properties of the accused can be forfeited to the state on . Perversion of democratic rights conviction if the court so orders. They can also be attached by . Creation of unproductive employment its order pending the trial (Noorani, 1999). . Inroads of OCGs into various systems of governance . Nexus with the Police Number of cases under the terrorist . OCGs and sports and disruptive activities (Prevention) Act . The marriage of the legal and the illegal . OCGs and the Film Industry State 1988 1989 1990 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 . OCGs and the Gold market Arunachal Pradesh 8 2 5 1 2 2 - - Assam 133 1182 801 395 503 337 51 17 . Under invoicing/over invoicing Bihar 00052 -32- . Hawala Gujarat 97 44 9 - 0 - - - Himachal 31183 000 Jammu & Kashmir 36 252 1498 3164 2846 2627 1158 - Erosion of Civil Liberties M.P. nanananananana na Maharashtra 14 0 0 90 112 15 9 - OCGs provide justifications for governments to pervert the Manipur 42 50 51 38 51 99 21 - rule of law and to erode the fundamental rights to liberty and Meghalaya 0 0 0 - 4 1 5 - privacy of citizens. OCGs give a set of rationale by which the Mizoram 00011 - - - government acquires enormous power eroding the rights of Nagaland 1 0 0 - 0 - - - the civil society through the passage of draconian laws. This Punjab 319 141 26 6 4 3 - - leads to massive abuse of power. The selective application of Rajasthan na na na na na na na na the "Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act" is a case in point.The Tamil Nadu 0 0 0 2 2 1 - 2 statistics below indicate that most of the cases were against Tripura 0 0 0 - 0 - - - Muslims and in Jammu and Kashmir. Mercifully this law was Uttar Pradesh 11 9 17 235 56 15 - - totally repealed. INDIA 763 1773 2498 4093 3743 3183 1304 56 Source: NCRB, Annual Reports, New Delhi: NCRB Na: not available

FORMER NEXT 13 Chapter 1 Perversion of the Rule of Law ly stated that death punishment be given to policemen found guilty of committing murder in the name of encounter. As this Another set of facts which forewarns against the dangers to chapter would argue,the socio-economic reality that creates OCGs civil society is the extra-judicial killings by the police and other and the method to tackle them is to remove the factors which enforcement agencies (Encounter killings). One of the "high necessitate their emergence and not by brutalizing the state profile" police commissioners of Bombay initiated this process machinery. with the excuse that the criminals invariably hire powerful lawyers, find all kinds of loopholes in the law and get away scot- free. In order to curb crime, he suggested that the police may Creation of Unproductive Employment resort to "encounter killings" provided such a decision is taken at the top level! Because the legal system is tardy and the govern- The presence of OCGs in Bombay has created the need for ment employs not so efficient lawyers,he felt it perfectly legitimate private security agencies on an unprecedented scale. It is now a to use extra-legal methods. It must be noted that it is again anoth- nearly 380 million USD business thanks to terrorists, gangsters, er example of system failures that give birth to OCGs. This is personal enemies and professional rivals of the rich and famous, explained in subsequent sections. When human rights groups crazed fans of the glitterati and lone maniacal stalkers.The busi- have pointed out that ordinary citizens also got killed in these ness has grown in the past decade along with an increased feel- so called "encounters", the stock reply of the establishment has ing of insecurity among the citizens. There are nearly two lakh been "an occasional human error" is inevitable. private security personnel in the city, roughly five times more than the Mumbai Police strength (Guards of honour. The Week While the police themselves bemoan that the OCGs have far 15th April 2001). more sophisticated arms and keep asking for a higher budgetary allocation, in almost all the encounters the press release reads as follows: "Police sleuths… killed three sharp shooters of OCG and Sports the… faction of the… gang in an encounter on…night. Acting on a tip-off… laid a trap.The police asked them to surrender but they Dawood is a much sought-after man in Dubai’s social circuit (sharp shooters) fired at the police. The police retaliated… the and would often be picked up by TV cameras while watching gangsters were injured and were rushed to… hospital, but were cricket at Sharjah. The Dawood’s group has allegedly been declared dead on arrival". involved in the cricket betting racket. Though his men affirm that Dawood is not personally involved, he does have many Between January and April, 2001, in Bombay alone there friends among Indian and Pakistani cricketers. They say that were such 24 encounter killings. Some of these may not have since Dawood took a keen interest in cricket and was part of the been encounters at all but sheer murders by the police.Imagine expatriate social circuit in Dubai, touring cricketers from the sharp shooters who have never missed a target in their careers subcontinent would usually be introduced to him.Senior Indian miss a whole posse of police at point blank range! In different players have enjoyed his hospitality and have even been pho- states, the police have been asking for more powers to the tographed with him. Chotta Shakeel has even admitted in a police to tackle the growing organised crime in the wake of press interview that he had sorted out problems between sophisticated methods adopted by OCGs. bookies (Hasnain Ghulam, "At Home in Exile", Outlook,20th November 2000). The Asian Age (24th April 2001) reported a Fortunately, we have a few small civil rights groups monitor- statement made in Parliament that the central Bureau of ing these developments. In Karnataka in South India, they have Investigation (CBI) has found "clear signals" that the underworld urged the President of India to withhold the passing of a Bill to mafia was taking interest in the cricket betting racket and could control organised crime because of some obnoxious provisions. take over its control if not checked immediately. The Allahabad High Court (Uttar Pradesh,in North India) recent-

FORMER NEXT 14 Chapter 1 Increasing Sophistication of the OCG There have been several instances of OCG members using There are cases where the underworld masterminds abduc- cell phones from within jails to conduct operations. OCGs tions via satellite phones.The Babloo Srivastava gang had used appoint only the most trusted lieutenants as the dubbawalas sophisticated technology to lure a UAE businessman. Though (people who bring food to prisoners undergoing trials) for their top names in the underworld — Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem members. They are said to be the conduit for bringing cell and Chota Rajan — use satellite phones regularly to keep in phones and messages to and from their bosses. Many of these touch with their trusted lieutenants, this was the first known dubbawalas over time have graduated to higher ranks either as instance where the underworld used satellite phones for sharp shooters or money managers in almost all the gangs. abduction.This, however, is not the first case of sleuths finding a There has to be a collusion with the police for this to happen. satellite phone while investigating a criminal case. The Delhi Police had seised a similar INMARSAT mobile satellite phone A large number of OCG members invariably get themselves used by Mumbai gangster Ashwin Naik, who was arrested in a into hospitals as soon as they are arrested on one pretext or murder and narcotics case two years ago (The Indian Express 26th another. Medical professionals have been accused of being March 2001). hand in glove with the OCGs in providing health certificates which warrant hospitalization. Some have escaped from hospi- The underworld's armoury has caused concern to the city tals too. The doctor-criminal nexus came to light three years police. Though over 1,500 firearms were seised from gangsters ago. However, the government remained unmoved even after in the past five years, the underworld is still equipped with this revelation, resulting in a petition in the Bombay high court. sophisticated firearms like AK-47 assault rifles and Glock pistols A bench delivered its judgement on the case (petition 5603 of (The Times of India 17th March 2001). 1999) on March 13, 2000, directing the health minister to hold a fresh, impartial inquiry within four months from April 1, 2000 by Inroads of OCGs into various systems appointing appropriate authorities.The Minister gave the court of governance: an assurance that he would do so. A year has passed after the . Nexus with Police/Professionals order and no action has been taken as yet against the persons The police arrested two constables in connection with the allegedly involved in the nexus (The Asian Age 25th April 2001). daring escape of Imran Sheikh just outside the court room. Such sequence of events is ominous. Imran Sheikh, a member of the Barain based Ali Budesh gang, opened fire when he was given a revolver by someone in the crowd and quickly escaped from the premises. Investigators The Marriage of the Legal suspect that the two policemen turned a blind eye when the and the Illegal weapon was passed on to him.Their suspicion was further confirmed because the duo did not open fire when the gangster OCGs are dealing in stolen property.This section offers inter- escaped ("Two Policemen Held for Gangster’s Escape", The esting insights into the links between government policies, Indian Express 2nd April 2001). Undergoing trial and accused for gangs,dockworkers and legitimate businessmen.Varadha Rajan smuggling charas, Azadkhan Bashirkhan Pathan, a resident of and Haji Mastan were veteran OCG leaders. Data show that the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, fled from the court dockworkers they recruited were instructed to steal from spe- premises on Monday. Pathan pushed aside the escort compris- cific consignments.The workers knew where the consignments ing of two armed policemen and fled. Incidentally, this is the were on any given day. They would break the seal, remove the fifth instance in the current year of an accused person under- contents, neatly re-seal the container/box. Industrial items (ball going trial managing to escape in the presence of armed police. bearings etc. which had high duties) were obtained by busi- Pathan was arrested from Fatehgunj area early this year. He was nessmen using the services of Varadha Rajan and Haji Mastan. carrying a 2-kg of charas consignment (Under trial Escapes From They had multiple advantages: they could claim insurance, Vadodara Court Premises, The Times of India,29th Nov.2000). avoid paying duties and then sell the stolen goods in the black

FORMER NEXT 15 Chapter 1 market and make money. Obviously, a percentage of this is paid country and, if business circles are to be believed, he even to the OCGs which carried out the theft... helped out Pakistan’s Central Bank with a dollar loan to tide over a crisis. He also controls the parallel credit system, called hundi, This activity has become more difficult with the use of con- in Pakistan and India. He still dominates the gold smuggling tainers. However, a recent case points out that despite stealing into India. Mumbai is no longer the main conduit for Dawood’s at the port, people in charge do not follow strict rules. Since the drug trade, it is said. Dawood’s financial liquidity is stupendous. government levies 105% tax on imported cars, it is highly prof- Property developers in Islamabad were amazed when he paid itable to steal new cars arriving at the port.A bunch of eight cars over USD 5 million in cash in just a few days to acquire a huge (valued at 0.5 million USD) were robbed. The modus operandi plot in Islamabad (Hasnain Ghulam, At Home in Exile, Outlook, was simple.The robbers obtained fake identity cards by bribing 20th November 2000).In this section we shall present three types someone in the Port Authority, drove in old cars, opened the of activities which are involved with OCGs: the film industry, containers, took out the new cars, changed the number plates gold smuggling and diamond trade.The Hindi film industry has with the new cars and drove out. It was found that these stolen a turn over of 1.5 billion USD annually.There are indications that cars had been sold to politicians and film personalities (Khomne OCGs have a powerful presence in it and in more than one way Ranjit, Probe Exposes mafia role in car thefts, Times of India, 14, 06, (details below). Gold smuggling has been the forte of the OCGs 2001). since independence and more so since 1963 after the passage of the Gold Control Act.The volumes of gold smuggled into our country (which holds a third of the world’s gold ever mined) by Hawala the OCGs is mind boggling.Diamond trade is the second largest item in our exports. If what is being said of Bharat Shah (details Smuggling facilitated another trade, Hawala (money trans- below) is true, the entry of OCGs into this sector should make action through illegal channels).Hawala has existed for decades policy makers think. to save up money.Smuggling gave it a boost.Industrialists,businessmen,bureaucrats,smugglers and politicians require foreign currencies and hawala operators proved indispensable to them. OCGs and the Film Industry Till the mid-1980s Indians traveling abroad were not permitted to carry above US$400/. Even now the INR is not fully convert- Sometimes, the public has needs which are easily met by the ible and the demand among Indians for USD is very high. Few underworld groups. Only recently the government has recog- Indians can obtain permission to hold international credit cards. nised film production as an industry despite the fact that India As long as these types of controls continue, hawala will flourish. makes the highest number of films in the world, and that the The government has recently approved convertibility on capital Hindi film industry deals mostly in hard cash, most of which has account. Hopefully, this kind of measures will reduce the role of always been black.In this sector,a small time producer hoping to hawala operators. make it big can never hope for a loan from any bank or financial institution. He then secure the help of the underworld groups through a mediator.The gangs give the money with the full con- Wealth of OCGs fidence that they can recover the money under any circum- stance through force and threat. On the same basis money is The sheer wealth of OCGs is a matter of concern. Dawood given to builders.Additionally,both these avenues are easy ways operates, by remote control, an empire spread across Mumbai- of laundering money. At present close relatives of the under- Gujarat-Uttar Pradesh-Delhi-Dubai. The Indian agencies esti- world have begun to produce movies, making money launder- mate his worth as about USD 0.5 billion. Insiders claim that he ing much easier.For example the brother of Chota Rajan has pro- has invested billions of Pakistani rupees in real estate in Karachi duced a blockbuster Hindi movie.Recent shoot-outs and killings and Islamabad. Apparently he controls the stock-market in that are only symptoms of the long-term link between the OCGs and

FORMER NEXT 16 Chapter 1 the filmdom in Bombay. According to the police, 35 cinema evidence show that the businessman’s diamond trading enter- artists had received threatening calls from the underworld this prises were being used to launder mafia money. In June 2000, year, compared to 21 threatened last year. A top police official customs officials at the Santa Cruz Electronics Export Promotion attributed the rise in threat calls to the spreading tentacles of the Zone in Mumbai had issued notices to both companies, underworld in almost all areas of filmmaking. He said, "It sounds demanding payment of duties of around 4 million USD in addi- like a cliché now, but most of the directors were asked to drop tion to penalties, and threatening to confiscate equipment. actors and actresses in favour of somebody else, despite the tal- Officials found that 73,730 carats of diamonds, worth an esti- ent the person dropped may have." mated 6.5 million USD had disappeared without trace from BV Jewels’ accounts. Inversely, they discovered USD 6.8 million Here we shall merely give a summary of a case that is in worth of diamonds used in exported jewelry which were not progress in Bombay:The film "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke". listed in import documents. . Its producer was picked up for connections with Mumbai’s underworld. Its financial backer, wealthy diamond . Customs officials believe that Shah’s companies had been merchant Bharat Shah was also arrested. Both have been smuggling raw diamonds and diamond jewelry in and out of booked under the MCOCA. At the time of writing, the judge the ‘Export zone, fudging figures in order to maximise tax dealing with their case have denied bail five times. exemptions on the import of raw materials and machinery. . But the film was a financial success. All the 325-odd prints While part of this financial misconduct may have been driven of the USD 3.2 million film were sold out on the eve of its release by pure greed, investigators suggest that the enterprise have netting a cool USD 4 million.Almost 100 per cent collection was enabled Mafia organisations to launder their proceeds from made in the first week. extortion. . It was made in a record time of six months.That the artists gave their dates promptly is due to the pressure exerted by . Similarly, dollar revenues from film sales overseas and expen- OCGs. ditures incurred on shooting movies in exotic locations abroad, . Another film, which was due to be released at the same were fudged in order to enable criminal cash to be turned legiti- time, was delayed, again due to the pressure exerted by OCGs, mate. "Money made from extortion", says one Mumbai police offi- authorities claim. cer, is useless to the Mafia unless it can be put back to work. . The Mumbai Diamond Merchant Association (has 12,000 Enterprises like those that Shah was running, or Kadawala (details members apart from 7,500 diamond exporters) closed down to are given below) used to run, allow that to happen. The money is protest against the arrest of one of its members, Bharat Shah, recycled,and put to work buying stocks,business or properties. one of the leading diamond exporters. His exports constitute . Some of the reactions of the public are worth stating: around 80 per cent of all diamond exports. Shah is a brand - "He (Bharat Shah) is a clever businessman and name himself. most of his investments have been routed through channels, but . The net worth of Bharat Shah has been estimated at USD money which have been routed cannot be traced back to him." — 250 million A diamond trader . The diamond lobby expressed the fear that if he is detained - "Everybody in the diamond market is aware of Shah’s connec- for long, the market could be affected. At a time when the long tions with the underworld. But he has a clean image in the dia- lull in the diamond market is ending, such news can damage mond market. He is ready to help any trader in times of need." — the image of Indian markets abroad, some asserted. This is a A diamond trader. classical way to put pressure on the judiciary and politicians to - "Every one knows that Dawood Ibrahim’s mistress is a former get him released. actress. Why haven’t the police tried to arrest her? Politicians suck . Allegedly, Shah also has stakes in a television channel, a gar- blood, cricketers fix matches and doctors sell kidneys. So it is not ment manufacturing company and the construction industry. surprising that film personalities use slush money." . Enforcement Directorate claims to have a growing body of Asif Mulla — a consultant for Industrial Relations.

FORMER NEXT 17 Chapter 1 . Hanif Kadawala was the owner, along with Hingora, of the high, then the attraction to gold is high as well (Vaidyanath video firm Magnum,one of the largest players in the distribution 1999).Gold is a very popular recourse among launderers since it of Hindi movies in West Asia, Europe and the United States. In is a universally accepted medium of exchange, making it a addition, he had substantial interests in the property markets, hedge in times of uncertainty, and with its price set daily,giving and a string of other businesses. He was the producer of many it a reasonably foreseeable value. Gold is a commodity traded hit films. Kadawala was standing trial for his role in the Mumbai on world markets, it offers anonymity, and it is easily liquifiable, serial bombings of March 1993. In that year, he had been making it possible for dealers to layer transactions in order to instructed to hand over three "guitars" (AK-56 rifles) and some blur the audit trail. It also offers scope for double invoicing, false "tennis balls" (hand grenades) to a film star. He was said to have shipments and other fraudulent practices. Gold is the only raw been in business with Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anis. On material comparable to money. February 7, 2001, three men walked into his office and one of them shot him five times at point-blank range. All three men India hardly produces any gold. The only important gold then walked down the staircase, and disappeared into the mine in Kolar has been contributing a minuscule production to crowded streets. the total annual consumption. But India annually accumulates one-third of the gold mined in the world and is ranked the second largest consumer of gold in the world. Practically the entire OCGs and the Gold Market demand is met from imports and the recycling of previously accumulated stock and scrap (Vaidyanath, 1999).The gold stock We are devoting a separate section on gold smuggling for of the country by the end of 1997 was 10,000 tons valued at cur- the following reasons: rent price on the world market at $120 billion.This is nearly four . The financial power of OCGs in India can be gauged times the country’s exports and official foreign reserves in that by the volume of gold they have already smuggled into India. year. This situation can have significant consequences in terms . Gold smuggling is a sector which has direct link with of the scale and functioning of the hawala market, the availabil- the legal sector of the jewelry market; and thus it is a point ity of foreign exchange for other uses and the health of the bal- where organised crime and the powerful industry merge, in ance of payments. Hence factors relating to the demand for turn giving enormous clout to OCGs in the system. gold and the sources of finance for importing it merit closer . Gold smuggling requires the connivance of Airlines, study (Vaidyanath, 1999). customs, and an array of government and other legal func- tionaries, thus contributing to the general criminalisation of Around 150 nations either charge a high tariff on gold or ban society. its import altogether. Gold smugglers thrive in India, Pakistan, . Gold smuggling is one of the largest mechanism for Indonesia, Thailand, Iran, France, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Brazil, money laundering in India. Egypt and Turkey. Among the countries that allow their citizens to hold gold freely and do not prohibit its import are For these reasons, this activity exemplifies the impact OCGs Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Lebanon and Singapore have on Indian society which in turn calls for a proper under- (Green, 1977). Indian policy with regard to gold has never been standing of their functioning and the creation of control mech- static since independence. Import of gold was restricted from anisms.It also again reinforces our view that policy makers have 1947 and later the Gold Control Act was introduced in 1963 to create multi-disciplinary task forces to analyse the potential (Malayala Manorama, 1998). However, illegal gold supply contin- outcomes of any major economic decision which may help ued to come into the country. In the 1950's around 80-90 tons strengthen OCGs. reached India annually. The gold import, most of it illegal, kept increasing from 31 tons in 1941-50 to 80-90 tons per annum dur- When many financial assets offer little hedge against infla- ing the 1950s, to 150 tons per annum in the 1960 and early tion, gold is a useful asset. When the incentive to evade tax is 1970’s (Vaidyanathan, S. 1999). In 1991 the legal import of gold

FORMER NEXT 18 Chapter 1 was allowed after the Gold Control Act was abolished in 1990. Gold smuggling is also prompted by the need to launder black Only to change again in 1999, when government imposed money. In 1998 the difference in price between the London mar- import duty of around USD 8 per 10 gm of gold. This has ket and Bombay was only Rs. 316 for 10 gm. In spite of this, by increased gold smuggling once again, in May DRI seised gold August of that year, there had already been an unofficial import worth USD 80,000 (Times of India, 1999). of 42 tons.This, if one were to consider the landing charges, commission to be paid for smugglers (30%) and other incentives,can- The world’s two big producers are South Africa and the for- not be a viable business to operate in itself.The only other reason mer Soviet Union, which mine 85 percent of all gold. South for it being sustained is its role in money laundering (Venkatesh, Africans and former Soviets sell all their gold as "gold delivery 1994, Kottary, 1988; Economic Times, 1996). It has been alleged bars" each weighing 400 troy ounces and,with gold at $160 troy that when there is election, political parties use gold as a means once, costing $64,000 a piece. Gold smuggled to France, Spain, of bringing in their savings from abroad for election expenses. Morocco or Turkey is in one-kilo bars (costing $5000). To India and Pakistan,the gold supplied is in ten-tola bars or "biscuits" as The financial task force on money laundering in 1997 identi- they are called and costs $600 each. In the case of Malaysia it is fied the gold market as a means for laundering money. Also the in 10-ounce bars.The type of gold purchased indicates the des- heroin route coincides with the gold routes. So is "Hawala" the tination it will be sent to. All smugglers buy gold from two alternative banking system, wide spread in South Asia and the wholesale markets: London or Zurich. The London and Zurich Middle East, well connected with gold circuits.This system facil- markets are fully aware of the illegal destination of their itates both currency exchange and the purchase and sale of reshaped bars. The Indian customs authorities and Revenue gold (FATF,1998). Intelligence service have tried for years to get the British to do something about the sale of gold to Dubai. But Indian authori- Among the known personalities involved in gold smuggling ties were told politely that such dealings were legal (Green, in the 1980s are the Bhattia brothers. Abdul Yaqub Bhattia was 1977).This is an area for organisations such as the FATF to delib- running the international syndicate from Dubai, supplying both erate upon. India and Sri Lanka. His syndicate and another syndicate from Singapore took care of 40% of India's requirements; Hong Kong Dubai is a free port. The smugglers operating out of Dubai provided the other 60%. Nepal is used as a conduit by are doing legitimate business there just as the Indian jewelers Singapore and Hong Kong.Nepal permits the import of 10 kg of are doing legitimate business of selling ornaments. The illegal gold and 150 kg of silver. As the Nepalese purchasing power is act starts when the gold crosses into the 12-mile limit of the limited, it is smuggled to India (Venkatesh, 1994). In India the Indian seas and ends when the metal is melted and made into entire operation is well managed, its network spreading jewelry by the gold dealers in India.Those acting in between are through out the entire west coast. Dawood Ibrahim is an impor- smugglers and criminals.Smugglers in gold have the advantage tant partner of the Bhattia syndicate. Sub-agents receive the of not attracting international attention, for they only violate consignment and safely transfer it to their hideouts. The broth- the customs regulations of the country for which the gold is er of Dawood, Mohammed Annees is said to be the person who destined. loads the contraband from Dubai. In Goa a vessel was captured by the customs and the interrogation of the person under In most parts of the world, it is price differential policies with whom the vessel was registered revealed that the vessel was regard to the import of the yellow metal that partly make smug- under total control of a close associate of Mohammed Annees gling of gold a viable proposition. But in India it does not appear in Gujarat. In 1994, Karim Bux Ghazi, a smuggler, was picked up to be a necessary condition. If the prices do not vary much, gold by the Border Security Force (BSF). Upon arrest, he admitted smuggling records drop for a while. But gold smuggling contin- that he is a close associate of Dawood and the Memon brothers ues in spurts. While between 90-91 around 337 kgs of gold was (Bhatia, 1988; Nandandhar, 1988; The Telegraph, 1994; Indian seised, in 1995 it was reduced to 65 Kgs (Economic Times, 1995). Express, 1987).

FORMER NEXT 19 Chapter 1 According to media reports the links between smugglers, Diamonds have the advantage of having a value relative to customs officials and airline crew have been important. It is not size/weight and store value for future use.It also offers scope for just the national airline that is involved; Gulf Air was penalised laundering money.It can ensure no audit trail as the entire busi- USD 250,000 for abetting gold smuggling.Another indirect sup- ness is done behind closed doors. There are no receipts main- port given to the gold smugglers is the insurance provided by tained at any time of the transaction at any level and the deal is six agencies in Dubai for transactions between the India- sealed with a handshake (Green, 1977). According to Boston Pakistan borders. This helps to cover losses, which might occur Bankers and former Soviet Commissars,diamond is used in trad- due to custom seisures (Bhardwaj, 1992; Sharma, 1996; Times of ing for heroin. India, 1999 and Kaodar, 1999).

In 1998, 46 tons of gold were smuggled into India.The black Diamond and OCGs income generated by this, amounts to around 480 million USD. Thus, in this industry, legal merchants' business with OCGs in It has been stated that diamonds are given as a form of pay- that year was to the tune of half a billion USD! At a nominal 10% ment to top film stars in Bollywood. The film industry in India as profit, OCGs in India made a profit in a single commodity in a has been important to money laundering and recently, impor- single year around 48 millions USD. Most of the transaction at tant diamond dealers have been financing major productions. the retail level takes place without bill and thus contributes to South Africa as already mentioned, is a major source for dia- the generation of black money. monds. The international community in a bid to force it to end apartheid placed economic sanctions on it for several years. India was one of the most articulate members against apartheid Diamond and agreed to enforce economic boycott of South Africa. But India has a large Indian community in Southern Africa and a It must be stated at the outset that this is an extremely sensi- flourishing diamond industry. How did the diamond trade con- tive subject in India.The diamond traders are well organised,close- tinue with South Africa in all the years of economic boycott? It ly knit and powerful. So is their international counterpart, De is apparent then that Indian traders must have used unofficial Beers. When the United Nations Commission inquiring into the channels to bring in raw diamonds and to export it and also to financial support gained by rebels in Sierra Leone by the sale of handle the money for such transactions. It is our contention "tainted diamonds" visited India to hold a meeting with the Indian therefore that in the days of apartheid, diamond trade in India diamond traders, most of the papers did not report it.Those who had to have the help of smugglers and hawala operators for did, carried the news only once in the inside page.Therefore, what running its normal business. It would appear that caught in a is stated here should be taken as a working hypothesis for further dilemma of furthering business on the one hand and upholding research. commitments made at the UN, the official machinery simply ignored the role played by the OCGs. Mines in South Africa, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Zaire, Angola, Ghana, Botswana and the former Soviet Union meet the global demand for diamonds. The main player in the global market is Under Invoicing/Over Invoicing De Beers, which owns mines in South Africa and Namibia. The De Beers Central Selling Organisation (CSO) markets over 80 Just as corruption is a universal phenomenon which under- percent of the world’s new diamonds. The purpose of purchas- pins all spheres of life in India, the trading and industrial coming diamond from all sources is to control the world diamond munity here indulges in under invoicing and over invoicing to market. There is a surplus in the market in comparison to the avoid taxes, to stash money away in foreign accounts etc. demand and hence monopolistic control will enable controlled Bhagirathi (2000) has computed the overall under Invoicing of supply (Green, 1977 and Executive Intelligence Review, 1986). exports and over Invoicing of Imports by using the partner coun-

FORMER NEXT 20 Chapter 1 try data comparison technique. India’s exports to the country is stones, is that those well versed in assessing the worth of compared with the country’s imports from India and vice versa. gems are limited. Hence there is always a threat that examina- Since export figures are given as free on board (f.o.b.) values,and tion by the customs can be discouraged by later claiming that that of imports as c.i.f. (cost, insurance and freight), 10% is added goods have been tampered with, with the consignee refusing to the export cost. Analyzing the data for countries to which to receive the consignment. India’s exports were more than USD 1000 million in 1997, she found large volumes of money involved in this type of practice. Growth of OCGs in Bombay Diamond trade offers flexibility to its traders and allows them to practice under invoicing of exports and over invoicing Social reality shapes and forms OCGs and their activities. As of imports. Under invoicing of exports helps sell foreign curren- the situation around organised crime is dynamic, the structure cy in black and avoid tax. At times, under invoicing of imports is that evolves is never static. So are their activities moulded by done to evade import duties in case of precious gems and the demands of society, changing with government policies, metal. As per data available, the main trade between India and technological advance, and political situations. Belgium are gems and semi precious stones. For the year 1996- 97, pearls, precious and semi precious stones made up around The Bombay underworld began to emerge in the 1920s. 78.56% of Indian imports from Belgium. During the same peri- There was no organised crime then but rather small groups of od the export of gems and jewelry to Belgium was 62.34% of thugs in various parts of the city.Their activities were restricted Indian exports. to their specific territories and involved in small time extortion. By and large, the dada (thug or the God Father) would lie on a Statistics given in the Table below provide some idea of the cot holding court throughout the day. Even in the fifties this trade volume between Belgium and India. The figures given in phenomenon continued, two known dadas in Bombay then bold numbers suggest there may have been some over/under were Borka and Sitaram. Occasionally politicians used them to invoicing in the years 1994-1996. Such large discrepancies can- whip up communal passions. not be explained by freight and insurance etc. Das (1994) presents a scenario where people involved in Trade between Belgium-Luxumburg and India communal riots subsequently established OCGs. He describes the communal riots of Bengal in 1946. Gopal Mukherjee raised Millions of USD a private army to protect Hindus during the riots. His group Trade Direction 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 received liberal support from wealthy Hindus during the com- Belgian Exports to India 1379 1411 1807 1812 2580 2462 2852 munal fury. Once the rioting subsided, this support was with- Indian Imports from Belgium 1395 1786 1923 1218 1583 1713 2617 drawn and the very figures who had been hailed as saviours Belgian Imports from India 665 631 800 940 1113 1206 1209 from Muslim brutalities were now looked upon with social con- Indian Exports to Belgium 668 694 804 912 1109 1057 1088 tempt. Gopal Mukherjee and others began their OCG career. Source: IMF,1998, Direction of Trade Statistics Year Book,Washington: IMF,pp.126, They continued their communal actions in 1950. Subsequently, 251. some joined the Congress Party; some the Communists. There According to a report, two leading firms owned by dia- was also a Muslim from the riot days who subsequently became mond merchants were arrested for duty evasion of around 4 an OCG don. One of the limitations of this chapter is that we have million USD by the Customs operating under the Commerce not examined the link between riots in Bombay and their role in the Ministry. They were misusing the facility provided for import, birth of OCGs. by avoiding tax under the condition that goods imported would be exported back. According to an informant another In Bombay, Among the OCGs that evolved and established advantage enjoyed by those dealing with gems and precious themselves during the sixties to the late nineties are: Karim

FORMER NEXT 21 Chapter 1 Lala's group, Haji Mastan's group, Varadharajan's group, Involvement of Organised Crime Dawood group, Amar Naik group, Arun Gawli group, Dholakia Groups in Drug Trade group, Chota Rajan group, Chota Shakeel group and Abu Salem group. Drug business, is an economically sound venture for OCGs because of the huge profit margin.Ten kilograms of opium from National policies regarding imports inadvertently facilitated within the country can be processed to give one kilo of heroin. smuggling. After the Indian independence, imports were highly Only a few venture into the field because of the risks involved restricted, the underworld took on smuggling of any goods that and tight competition.The trade is not for amateurs, a newcom- had a demand: gold, diamond, electronic goods, luxury item, er needs to know somebody already in the field.Otherwise he is arms etc. The mode of transport includes sea, air, and land arrested under NDPS Act or eliminated. Police informers on routes.The sea route that started decades ago continues to play drug trade have close links with the underworld. an important role. Transport of smuggled goods across the country, whether for local consumption or for transit to another The story of Shyam Narain Mishra is an interesting illustra- country, is undertaken by land, sea and air routes (see Annex II for tion of entry and growth in the drug trade. After his studies some examples). Mishra got married to an opium cultivator's daughter. He soon learnt that diversion was part of the business and the huge Drug trade in India was facilitated by its geographical prox- price difference between opium in Uttar Pradesh and heroin in imity to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka and the Bombay. He immediately recruited a retired employee of the political disturbances that occurred in the region. As a result Central Government to run opium factory at Ghazipur and with India evolved as an important transit route for drug trade. For his chemical expertise, he set up a simple bathtub technology example, Afghanistan became an important producer of lab in Bombay. He identified people with chemical expertise opium with a cadre of expert drug dealers on account of the looking out for a job. One of those employed became a police cold war politics and the consequent internal turmoil. People informer and the lab was destroyed. This was a blow to Mishra, in Afghanistan live in an extreme climate and with hardly any as it is difficult to restart this part of the drug chain. means to a comfortable life. Under such circumstances some of them have decided that opium growing is a better option It is in the seventies that the involvement of organised for them than the cultivation of other crops. This decision has groups in drug trade came into prominence. In Bombay, Karim been strengthened by the fact that cultivation of opium gives Lala's group caught the attention of the media. He had begun far higher returns than cultivation of any other crop in a given to trade in cannabis products with the help of Jhuma Khan plot of land. Besides, unlike other crops, opium needs less care Charaswala. After the latter expired Karim Lala continued his and irrigation. It has also been alleged that both United States drug trade with Khan's son Farukh. Later Karim Lala's nephew and Pakistan have encouraged opium cultivation as a way of and brother joined the group. financing weapon purchase by Afghans when they fought against the former USSR (Sarwar, 1992). Recently, the Taliban Karim Lala’s main activity was smuggling hashish into the has imposed a ban on poppy cultivation with their usual style country and exporting it to UK and other countries. As a of threats.The UNDCP has launched a major crop substitution Pathan he had easy access to Pathans in Pakistan and programme there. However, there are hardly any example of Afghanistan.The brand he sold then was called Bombay black. crop substitution succeeding anywhere in the numerous One of his henchmen later became a known international don highland development projects. At best, cultivation shifts to in the drug trade.H was Iqbal Mirchi,according to enforcement different areas. officials.But attempts to get him extradited from England have failed for want of adequate evidence. Lala's group faced a setback after Haji Mastan withdrew from smuggling, which created a vacuum in the underworld. Around this period Varadha

FORMER NEXT 22 Chapter 1 Rajan’s group was also dismantled through police action. Iqbal Mirchi Before retiring from the field, Karim Lala was harassed by court Iqbal Mirchi from Gujarat, began his career in a humble cases and he soon sought truce with Dawood. After him, it was manner. He used to work as a taxi driver and did roadside sales Iqbal Mirchi who managed the drug scene along with other of spices in his spare time. Slowly he began to take part in groups. Iqbal Mirchi unlike the others from the underworld organised theft of goods from the docks. These were insured kept a low profile and managed his business in a smooth man- goods, often oil, chemicals, steel, ball bearings and auto spare ner. Though cases have been filed against him, nothing has parts. It is alleged that Iqbal Mirchi was able to establish himself come out of them. in organised theft of insured property because he ensured the fall of Varadha Rajan, then King of the docks. Along with narcotics, he smuggled textiles and electronic goods. Contraband The Drug Traders from the Eighties was landed in Surat. He initially took the help of Amirzada and Alamzeb, who were later killed. Later he shifted his activities to The drug traffickers in the eighties were dealing with prof- real estate and other business ventures, which helped him to its beyond the dreams of earlier smugglers or even the dealers launder money. of charas or cannabis. For the profit through heroin at a conservative estimate was put at 125 to 200 million USD. In 1983 Iqbal Mirchi handled the Mandrax trade to South Africa and the Gold seised was over one million USD, but in 1987 the Canada, for the latter he took the help of a Canadian national, quantity seised was 11.2 million USD. By the year 1988, the Willima Pitt.He had manufacturing units in Surat and Vapi.These amount went beyond 42.5 million USD in nine months. This units were run under the guise of medicine manufacturing fac- increase in gold seised cannot be explained by the profit mar- tories. Later he increased his network by linking up with gin in gold or the related hawala trade.The only explanation is Dawood. His network soon spanned different parts of the coun- that the gold smuggled in were on the funds from the outflow try (Rajasthan, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kutch, Bombay and Alibagh) of heroin (Kottary,1988).Heroin became a handy substitute for and other countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Dubai, Canada, Hong silver ingots, a metal that had been traditionally bartered for Kong, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa and Australia). gold (Bombay, 1991). Through his various trades he was able to build up assets Unlike in the sixties when a few gangs trafficked in products worth 50 million USD, most of them in the form of real estate in of cannabis, in the eighties when heroin and its impure form Bombay and London. He also has hotels in Dubai and a rice mill brown sugar entered the field, many groups took up the activi- in London. He lives in a select locality in London, where he is ty of drug trafficking along with smuggling in gold and hawala considered to be a businessman. A part of his assets, he claims, business. Some of those who are alleged to have made it big in came legally from the government, the Indian government has Bombay were Iqbal Mirchi, Gurbux Bhiryani, Dawood Ibrahim, paid him over Rs.1.60 crore over a period of six years for tipping Kishore Bhatt, Bhavarlal Somani,Vinod Gulati, Narendra Bishnoi, off customs officials about contraband. Informers who tip off Shashi Chadha and Kamal Chadha. Others who became known drug hauls are paid 20% commission. It is alleged that Mirchi in Delhi were Sukhdev Sidhu, Surender Mehta, Dr. Gurdev Singh through his close links in the customs ensured that drugs traf- Sangha, Vinod Kumar Aneja, Jasbir Singh Sandhir, Jogender ficked by his rival gangs were seised and at times also his own Malhotra and Yudishter Kumar. Out of these Bhavarlal, Vinod consignments. Gulati,Narendra Bishnoi,Gurbux Bhiryani,Sukhdev Singh Sidhu, Surender Mehta, Dr. Gurdev Singh Sangha, Jasbir Singh Sandhu, A handful of seisures cannot harm an established drug trad- Joginder Malhotra and Yudhister Kumar were arrested (Kottary er. For the business profit is so huge that even if a part of the 1988). consignment reaches the destination, the venture can be profitable. Unlike gold, only a small quantity needs to be trafficked at a time.

FORMER NEXT 23 Chapter 1 At present Mirchi is a comfortably settled businessman, he The expertise of a packer is important to the trade. It helps never had any direct contact with illegal activities as he dis- in evading unwanted attention. The skill needs to be perfected tanced himself from direct action. It is alleged that the arrest of and changed when one method becomes too well known. In Vicky Goswami, was manipulated by Mirchi. Another person Gurbux’s outfit this person was Narendra Bishnoi in Bombay. He who was arrested was Khalid Chappalwala, who was at the cru- specialised in packing heroin in chocolate slabs and in arrang- cial juncture of taking over the hawala trade from his mentor ing couriers. Jasbir Singh Sadhu a second-generation gold-run- Mirchi. ner in Punjab with links in Pakistan was an important person in Gurbux’s organisation, wanted for as many as 18 violations of Mirchi has been successful in evading the hands of the law, the Arms Act.In addition to this he trafficked heroin and hashish despite his arrest in London.He managed to evade extradition to to UK and US, but never had his own roster of couriers (Kottary, India. He even went ahead to apply for anticipatory bail to come 1988). to India,when the government froze his assets in Bombay.Mirchi has been accused of financing the serial bomb blast (Abraham, The Gurbux Bhiryani group got caught trying to send hero- 1995, Bombay, 1995; Murthy, 1995; Indian Express, 1996, Thevar, in packed in chocolate bars and cheese packs.The consignment 1998 and Basu et al. , 1999). was to be taken in two parts; one belonged to Jasbir and the other to Gurbux. The group used Zeenie Ahmed who was the Gurbux Bhiryani contact of Bishnoi and Manjula Desai was put in touch with Gurbux Bhiryani was the man responsible for initiating the Rajnibhai Patel a notorious Bombay cheat by Yogesh Pandey, a Indo-Dutch connection racket in Canada.He had started his career diamond dealer. Through Rajnibhai she got in touch with Gala. unremarkably,migrating to UK as a penniless laborer.When arrest- These two female couriers boarded the flight from Bombay- ed and put behind bars, he studied and earned an engineering Delhi-New York. In order to ensure that their consignment was degree and then a doctorate in laser technology.The degree was safe, a supervisor, H.S. Gala, was also on board (Kottary, 1988). of no use to him after prison. No one was willing to give him a job because of his criminal background. The role of corruption in facilitating the trade was seen in the case of Gurbux’s group. All messages to him were transmit- He decided to give his full attention to setting up a drug run- ted through his contact, Kshma Abhyankar, a telephone opera- ning organisation out of India into Canada, with the headquar- tor in a public sector corporation of New Delhi.When confront- ters in The Hague since neither Netherlands nor India had an ed by the NCB, Bhiryani is reported to have mentioned the extradition treaty with Canada. He used the cover of Orient names of two union cabinet ministers. The other instances of Exports in Delhi to traffic hashish. To facilitate business he had links were when Bhiryani disappeared for days when he was links with partners and workers across the globe. Some known shifted for medical care to a hospital from Tihar Jail. During his personalities linked to him are Iqbal Mirchi, Kishore Bhatt, Vinod appearance in court instead of being kept in the court lock-up Gulati, Eric Hammer Quist, Shyam Mishra, Sunil Bhiryani (broth- he was allowed to wander around freely near the lawyer’s er), Manu Dadlani (brother-in-law), Rajnath Kasi and Billa Puri chambers. (Brother-in-law). is contacts undertook money laundering, setting up of laboratories, managing bank accounts, being couriers for the trade and ensuring money flow.

Workers with different skills were employed in Gurbux Bhiryani’s group.The contacts between workers were limited to one level below and one level above. This ensured that the groups were protected even if one of them were arrested and disclosed whatever they knew.

FORMER NEXT 24 Chapter 1 On the Structure and Functioning It can be a mixture of both,making it an open system that has of OCGs in Bombay a highly fluid structure that adapts to changes in immediate environment. The more homogenous and stable the environment, Das (1994) studied the structure of the Calcutta underworld the more formalised and hierarchical structure will be adopted by with police records on four aspects: the OCGs. Whereas in a diverse and rapidly changing environ- . Whether they were homogenous in that they had ment, a less organised form will dominate. This is in essence the members with similar social and religious backgrounds. contingency theory, which stresses that there is no best way to . Factors behind the process of their criminalisation organise. All organisations have fluid structures that adapt them- . Their links with institutional politics selves to the changes in their environment (Lawrence, 1967 in . The type of crimes they committed. Lombardo 1997).

Our main query for this section is whether OCGs of Bombay Annelise Anderson (1974, in Lombardo, 1997) indicates are feudal or bureaucratic or fluid in their structure and func- that both bureaucratic model and patron-client models of tioning. The crimes they commit have mostly been covered organisational structure can exist at the same time. Her under the section titled: Impact of OCGs on Society.The links of research found that traditional OCGs did have positions of OCGs with political parties is merely touched upon here.We are boss, under boss, lieutenants and so on, but they were not as exploring the dimensions of criminalisation in the next section. organised as portrayed in bureaucratic models. Their associ- The final sub-section of this chapter gives the details of the ates carried out many activities necessary for the success of grassroots level structure of drug trade as an example to show the group and entered into patron client arrangement with its that it is highly hierarchical and bureaucratic. members.

The structure of OCGs in Bombay is diverse in nature; the Theoretical Resume intra-group relationships can be described as a combination of both the bureaucratic and patron-client models. There are, The journey of our understanding of OCGs can be traced back besides, individuals not directly linked to the gangs except on to the early fifties when it was first defined. Donald Ray Cressey’s assignments. At times gangs interact with smaller groups who work constitutes a landmark in the theorization on OCGs through control specific territories and tasks. his presentation of their bureaucratic model in 1967 and 1969. Subsequent researchers have questioned this highly structured In Bombay, as OCGs developed, each had specific territori- bureaucratic model,one of the strong critics being Joseph Albimi in al boundaries and specialisation. Small time criminals, 1971. This criticism led to further research. Today we accept the depending on their business acumen and ruthlessness, were existence of a decentralised structure for OCGs, as well. able to evolve as underworld dons. The structure of their organisations and their activities depended also on the level Others have moved beyond looking for specific model for of competition. Among the various illegal activities of the OCGs, there are indications that the structure of OCGs can be gangs in Bombay were: trade in illicit liquor (till prohibition fluid. It may not be a bureaucratic model like a business corpo- was in force), gold, electronic goods, drugs and arms. Running ration or government organisation — rationally structured to brothels, collection of protection money, extortion, eviction maximise profit/efficiency and accountability. It may also not were equally their domains of operation. have an exclusively feudal form, be organised by such actions and by cultural values that have nothing to do with modern It was during the eighties that the gangs became more bureaucratic virtues. organised and used technology to enhance communication and control. Certain gangs began to have strategic alliances outside the country to strengthen their position within India.

FORMER NEXT 25 Chapter 1 They grew on to provide illegal goods and services, providing The dealers in the Bazaar made payments to the galadaris temporary solutions to problems ignored by the political directly. Haji Mastan, had to have links with different groups in administration.This smooth arrangement of underworld busi- different areas, interacting with diverse communities of work- ness faced a major crisis with the "Bombay Blast"(2) that shook ers. His group also avoided confrontation with ordinary citizen the city. and believed that respect for other gang’s territory was crucial for peaceful existence. Of course, this understanding between Neither the structure nor functioning of the organised gangs was vital for his business to survive. Thus we see a con- crime is static. It keeps changing depending on the social real- trast of two organisational forms in these two gangs due to (a) ity and environment that surrounds it. While Varadha Rajan a composition of the group (b) necessity of multi-nodal oper- and Karim Lala were able to maintain a closed organisation ating units. and make their writ run, this was not the case with organisations that came up subsequently. Unlike other groups Gawli had strong local support but totally lacked any international connection. He had a large workforce (around 800-1000), willing to try their luck starting Examples of Bombay OCGs small time and moving up the ladder. Gawli got into trouble when he decided to enter the political arena. This was unac- Karim Lala’s near homogenous group easily enforced their ceptable to the local party that supported his OCG till then. own set of laws in their territories (Sunday, 1988; Bombay, Without political support, Gawli's group could not sustain itself 1989). Most of his group's key members were Pathans. His OCG too long,since he could not compete with international players, was a closed organisation. The elimination of key members like Dawood and Chota Rajan. Harassed by numerous cases he proved fatal to its survival. Samad Khan (his nephew), kept moving in and out of jail. Not that the jail was a deterrence Amirzada, Alamzeb, brother Rahim Khan, Chandrashekhar to his work, for with his mobile phone he was able to continue Saphalika and Jaffar Siddiqui were killed in a gang rivalry. By organising his street tax. He, like other groups began to collect 1986, entangled in fifteen cases, he slowly lost his support tax from professionals. With strong police action against extor- structure and faded away from the limelight of the underworld tionists and elimination of his members through encounter (Indian Express, 1985; The Daily,1986; Times of India, 1986; killings, his group's reach has shriveled but did not completely Sayani,1987; Sunday, 1988; Shah,1988; Thomas 1991; Indian disappear. Express, 1994 and Rattanani,1994). Dawood could not afford to have a closed organisation; he Unlike the Karim Lala's group, the group of Haji Mastan needed all the support he could get to manage his organisa- (also a migrant from south India) could not have a closed tion. After his feud with Karim Lala’s group, he had to shift his group. Mastan's main business was gold and other smuggled base to Dubai; there was also a case against him. He was able to goods.The activity occurred at different levels, in various loca- get his work organised in India through his network. This he tions depending on different types of people from distant could manage since he maintained a business like approach in places. Gold smuggling managed from Dubai or Singapore his interaction with others. Hence, when there was a dispute had its landing area and the gold dealers in India. Once the between his lieutenant, Chota Rajan and his landing agent con- dhows reached Indian territorial waters, a group of workers trolling the western suburb, he had to support his landing (invariably from migrant populations) meet the dhows at sea agents.This is probably what made Chota Rajan part ways with to unload the gold. The goods are carried in vehicles to the Dawood. final destination. There were different groups of workers, one to collect the goods to bring them to shore, another to collect The Dawood group has its bases in Dubai, London, the goods and place them in the vehicles. The people driving Singapore, Colombo and Kathmandu. At the national level they and managing the next level of activities are totally different. operate from Bangalore,Delhi,Indore,Uttar Pradesh,Hyderabad

FORMER NEXT 26 Chapter 1 and Ahmedabad. In Bombay Dawood has acquired around 54 To run an underworld business, purely on one's own reli- structures, through both legal and benami (Proxy) transactions. gious association is impossible. To an extent, this maybe possible within the city, but certainly not at the international level, Activities undertaken by Dawood for maintaining his 1750 especially when one's counter parts are from Malaysia/ million USD monolithic smuggling cum trafficking empire Afghanistan/Pakistan or other parts of South Asia. include gold smuggling, drug trade, "vasooli" (collecting dues from business men), settling scores, procuring foreign The irrelevance of religious affiliations can be seen from the exchange, "supari" (contract killing), securing college admis- fact that most gangs, after the eighties, have people from vari- sions. Many of the public from all walks of life approach him for ous religious backgrounds.The marriage of Chota Rajan was in justice, be it businessmen, industrialists or film personalities. fact organised by Dawood in Dubai, a Hindu wedding — the bride belonging to an upper caste Hindu community. Contrary The work force running the show is grouped in the following to popular notions in India, Dawood’s gang also has Hindu categories: members. "Despite the blasts, we have many Hindu boys working . Money managers, for us. Those who work for him in India get a handsome commis- . Overseers of business transactions, sion. Though Chota Rajan has left us, we still have many Hindus. . Messengers, Bhai has that personality that endears him to his men. Once you . Fixers, start working for him you can’t abandon him", says a close asso- . Go between politicians and the police. ciate (The Cohorts of Crime). Das (1994) too found a similar situation in Calcutta OCGs. The social background of OCG mem- One such person was Romesh Sharma, a front man for bers there varied; they came from different economic class, Dawood. The actual name of Romesh Sharma is Styanarian educational background, linguistic groups, religious communi- Mishra. A native of Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh he is known in the ties and even nationalities. Within a particular gang, he found political circle since the time of Varadha Rajan.He used to enter- two Anglo-Indians and a Chinese with a foreign passport tain police and government personnel in hotels. The focus on among the prominent goondas. Romesh came partly from his involvement is facilitating the Visa for Dawood’s mother, soon after the Bombay bomb blast. It was But almost all OCGs seem to have an element of feudalism. found that Romesh had property worth 125 million USD, fixed In OCGs, loyalty is a must and is well rewarded. In his vast net- deposits worth 175,000 USD, shares worth 250,000 USD, jewelry work, Dawood retains loyalty with big money. "Bhai only worth 125,000 USD and vehicles worth one million USD, with- demands trust from you,the rest you can leave to him",Ahmed,an out any accountable source. He had links with politicians and in employee of Dawood said in an interview. Ahmed’s cover busi- 1996, he himself had contested the elections and floated a ness is the plush shop he runs in Motan Das Market in the Old party, the Bharatiya Congress Party. He has interactions with Town. There are hundreds of people like Ahmed spread across members of various political parties including those from the West Asia,India and Pakistan.They work for Dawood or Shakeel Congress (I), the BJP and the Samajwadi party. and earn a handsome living. "You cannot imagine how much they pay you. An acquaintance of mine, whose family member Chota Rajan, as Dawood's lieutenant, had naturally died for Dawood, gets $ 2,000 a month. It’s for life",says a demonstrated his business skills after his split from Dawood Pakistani trader.While Dawood buys loyalty, and while his men after the bomb blast and the resultant public animosity claim that Bhai never abandons any of his men, he’s reputed to against Dawood's group which was a blessing in disguise for be demanding and doesn’t tolerate those who "lie or disobey". Chota Rajan. He had a chance to disown his association with Such is the case of Aejaz Pathan. One of the key accused in the Dawood and gain the sympathy of people by claiming to be Mumbai blasts and a Dawood confidant, he along with several "patriotic". others joined the don in Karachi to begin a new life. As the story goes, Aejaz Pathan continued to smuggle drugs out of

FORMER NEXT 27 Chapter 1 Pakistan despite repeated warning from Dawood. One day toilets at night to use weapons such as Tokareu and Mauser pis- Dawood came to know that Aejaz had begun dealing in RDX. tols. They are trained how to load and unload a pistol, to cork, So he rang up his Pakistani mentors who raided Aejaz’s house point at the target and escape the scene of crime. They are and arrested him. It was only when Aejaz’s wife personally given real bullets only for the main operation; as a result they pleaded with Dawood that he was released, but on condition often miss a shot even at short distance. For their work, they are that he would leave Karachi for Dubai and nevercome back paid a small amount, USD 25 to 50 per assignment. Those who (Outlook…). watch the scene and do not shoot are given around USD 10 (Times of India,1999).Thus it appears that at the grassroots level, Among the youth taken into the gang, some are willing to the organisation has a large turnover and is fluid but at higher give their life for Dawood, as it is he who gives them food, shel- levels, Dawood’s OCG is bureaucratic. ter and clothing (Sheela, Bhatt, 1988). Such feelings occur more in those who have a longer interaction with him and have the While Dawood has problems managing the show from a dis- minimum of other support structures. Both types of youth are tance, the issues facing Arun Gawli group are of a different kind. useful for the group, for one cannot disclose anything because His group emerged in a specific locality. Till the police disman- they know nothing and the other because the feeling of loyalty tled his group, he was well settled in Dagdi Chawl.This area was is intense, taking full responsibility for the crime is seen as an well protected with 15 feet high wall, huge iron gates and elec- opportunity to repay the goodwill. tric wire. The entire population within Dagdi Chawl support Gawli, they either collude with the gang or submit to its restric- Dawood had to look at other options to run his trade, after tions. They refuse to divulge any information to the police the bomb blast. Most of his first generation supporters were (Times of India, 1990; Balakrsihna, 1993). either dead or behind bars. Looking for young recruits was not too difficult with many aspiring youth, within the city and outside, willing to take up assignments for a small price. Dawood's Decentralisation lieutenant Chota Shakeel handles that. Chota Rajan's group does the same. The task is facilitated by the social reality in It is the era of decentralisation in the underworld. It was neighboring states. Take the situation of Azamgrah, in Uttar long ago when Dagdi Chawl, with its group of 300 odd tene- Pradesh. This district has the distinction of producing many ments, Ghatla village (Chembur), 144 tenements (Lower parel) gangsters, such as Abu Salem, Muna Singh and Babloo Singh and Pakhmodia Street,was a cluster of mini fortresses,hideouts (Gupta, 1998). In Azamgrah there is an average of one murder for the gangsters and their aides. It was from here that an Arun every three days, with daylight shooting between rival organ- Gawli sent out his message of terror or a Dilip Kulkarni negoti- ised groups being a routine affair. It has as many gangsters as it ated a supari (contract killing). Today globalisation and tech- has MPs. Often the political criminals and criminal politicians nology have affected the modus operandi of gangsters who lead small and big time gangs armed with AK-47s and G-35s. have now fanned out. A Don can reign supreme sitting overseas issuing instructions and networking thanks to satellite The lure of a fast buck, unemployment and respect for vio- links and mobile phones (The Indian Express 29th April 2001). lence make the youth highly vulnerable to join organised groups. As a result they come to Bombay for their specific assignment and leave the city by the next train on completion Structure at the Grassroots Level of their task. The underworld groups are happy as they have a fertile land for their manpower (Joshi, 1997). This part of the chapter is based on primary data collected from members of OCGs dealing in drugs through in-depth Recruits in Bombay are trained to use sophisticated interviews and field observation. weapons in a casual manner. They are often trained in public

FORMER NEXT 28 Chapter 1 Unlike the middlemen and those above them, peddlers are inhaling the drug.Three of the interviewee’s stated that initial- generally uneducated and come from the poorer strata of soci- ly they used to feel giddy and after they completed the work ety, living on the pavements or in the slums. Often more than they slept for sometime. One of the females involved in it got one person from the family is involved in the trade. Since the addicted to the drugs and used to slash her wrist to get the nineties there are more women managing the business then drug from her husband who also peddled and used drugs. To men. This may have been a survival mechanism to avoid police facilitate packing, butter paper in which the drug is to be harassment and also as men peddlers tend to indulge in drug packed, is cut to the required size and placed in a row in use, whereas women peddlers use alcohol, which is less harmful advance. While one puts the substance, the other person for business. packs the pudi properly. The color of the substance is not visible to the user, and he does not know the quality of the sub- The business requires different kinds of work force, those stance till he pays for it. who collect the money, those who hand over the drug, those who pack the drug, those who test it and those who act as From the lump small quantities of the drug is removed for watchdogs. They also employ a literate person to maintain packing with the help of a small knife, the handle of a small accounts. spoon or even the stove pin. The quantity to go into each pudi was measured by one person to be the same size of the small For sensitive jobs such as handing over the drug, collecting lump at the end of a matchstick. money and packing the drug, peddlers use their relatives.There is a shift in this pattern, probably because close relatives get arrested for possessing drugs. For example a female peddler Watch Dogs was forced to own up her crime, when her adolescent daughter got caught with drug on her person. Now, some of the big Those who work as watchdogs are all male and non-drug timers employ others, often drug users, to hand over the sub- users. A peddler especially a female peddler will employ three of stance.The person who actually sells the drug just watches over four unemployed youth for this purpose. They are well taken his/her workforce, while they collect money and hand over the care of,so they hang around the place of work and safeguard the drug. Since, drug users are employed, the peddler can make business and inform the peddler in case of trouble. Often the payment in kind. female peddler has a relationship with one of these watchdogs or has a boyfriend on the side. She spends a lot of money on this person, especially since the husband, invariably a drug user, has Packers little interest in a physical relationship. These partners are never steady and she keeps changing them, the change is inevitable if For packing one has to depend on the most trusted of per- he ends up using drugs. sons. Hence, it is one of the family members who pack’s the drug. Women are involved in this activity, possibly because few of the women are drug users. The packing is not done in the Testers place of safe-keeping, another location is selected for this activity. Testing the drug is risky as the tester often ends up becoming a drug user. In the drug trade, quality is very important for At times any closed shack is hired for a period 2-3 hours. getting customers and retaining them. Many rivalries between The family goes outside the shack and sits around it, while the peddlers emerge from this. Some peddlers have tried to use packers sit inside and pack. For safety and to avoid the possi- drug users to test the quality of the drug. This does not always bility of a breeze disturbing the process, the entire work is work. At times, just to get the share of the drug as payment for done in a closed place. This in turn exposes the packers to the service, they vouch for its quality. Later when other cus-

FORMER NEXT 29 Chapter 1 tomers' complain the peddler is left with a lot of stuff that has no and recovered nine packets containing 25.5 KGs of brown sugar takers.Female peddlers depend on their drug-using husband for (NCB, 1997, NCB, 1998). testing the drug. According to the data collected from those operating in the field.There are a handful of people in charge of overall distribu- Drug Peddling in Bombay tion. They have strong links with the organised groups, but it is not clear whether this is in the form of paying obeisance or Bombay, the capital of Maharashtra is an important transit partnership. It is very difficult to get information from those point for drug trade to other countries. In 1999, a total of 77.99 who are at the top of the hierarchy and from others who finance Kg of heroin and 181.62 Kg of methaqualone were seised. the trade in the event of a cash crunch. Among the fourteen significant seisures made in Maharashtra, thirteen were in Bombay. Of which nine seisures took place at Those who deal with large consignments subsequently dis- the airport premises or the cargo consignment area for export tribute it to middlemen. According to the data available from goods. The major destination points of these consignments the media,there are people who deal with only 50 Kgs at a time. were African countries, and South Africa was the destination of They later hand over the substance to others. As per our data, three of the seisures. On two occasions South African Airlines there are also middlemen (maybe second level) who deal with was used for transportation. 20 KG at a time. They then distribute the drug to various destinations through their carriers. While Bombay plays an important role as a transit point, the local market is also lucrative. An adulterated form of heroin There are local as well as foreign carriers who are often called brown sugar is the common drug of choice. Other drugs Nigerian and Tanzanians. For example, Bhanumati Arvind Patel used are pharmaceutical products, the demand for which was arrested near Bandra Railway station for carrying 4 KG 200 increases when there is a sudden slump in the heroin market as gm and 3 KG 800gms of brown sugar. He was also carrying a a result of a few arrests or intense police action. revolver with 7 rounds of ammunitions. The detenue, a school drop out started his career with a videocassette library, then In Mumbai city the crude or adulterated form of heroin is shifted to the matka business. According to his statement, he called the desi mal. At present there is a stronger and better sold heroin to Nigerians. Using USD in the transaction, he pro- product available, which, unlike the pure gray or white color of cured and sold around 150KGs in one and half years. He heroin is black in color. It is apparently easier to chase, as the claimed he made Rs.12 lakhs through drug trafficking user does not have to wait for the powder to melt nor for fumes (Criminal Writ Petition n°: 1416, Bombay High Court). to form. The black product is semi solid. According to the local peddler, an oil base has been used for its preparation.The prob- African groups keep the drug with their contact, and dis- able additional advantage of this is that it looks like hashish. tribute it to any purchaser who needs to make a delivery to an already known customer.One of the peddlers received the drug Heroin that reaches the streets of Bombay comes through on an emergency basis by placing a phone call. land routes. Mules bring them through trucks, train and other vehicles.Truck drivers are considered to be useful links for trans- This is the most visible activity of drug trade and hence the portation within the country. For example in 1996, DRI most vulnerable for the peddlers, "victims" of token intervention (Bombay) intercepted a truck at Vasai, which was transporting in drug prevention efforts. Street level sales occur in easily acces- wheat form Amritsar and seised 71.577 KGs of heroin and sible localities in the streets.A hut is often used to store or sell the 118.625 KGs of hashish.The consignment was to be delivered in substance to customers. In 1998, officers of Mumbai Police Bombay. On another occasion in 1997, officers of Narcotics Cell searched a hut in Bombay city and apprehended one person and and Customs (Prevention) intercepted a truck parked at Dongri seised two kilograms from his possession.The man was arrested.

FORMER NEXT 30 Chapter 1 From the data collected, the drug is rarely stored in the Limitations of the Trade peddler's residence. It is kept in another slum nearby, with someone who may be a close relative or a neighbor who is The basic objective of peddling is to give, on a daily basis, indebted to the peddler in one manner or another. At times it the regular customer good stuff on demand. Even at night, the is kept in government flats of their relatives, for raids rarely demands of regular customers are met. When the police picks take place in these localities. up one of the peddlers in the locality, the others then stop their business, close shop for the day, go to the movies or go shop- There are around fourteen important places for drug sale ping. within the city plus many other small time sellers. In each of the fourteen spots there are more than two peddlers selling the When a person is arrested and put behind bars, the business drug on a daily basis. All of them maintain good business rela- is held back or managed discreetly till the dispute with the tions with the officials to sustain their business. police is settled. The peddler waits till he/she gets the information as to the amount of money to be given to the police, they There is a difference between peddlers in terms of the qual- know the price range of the officials and keep the cash ready in ity of the drug they sell and the quantity they deal with at a case of trouble. It is on these days of confusion that the peddler time. Some peddlers deal with good quality drug and others gets a holiday. Too long a break from the field can mean a loss deal with the adulterated form, brown sugar. The price per of regular customers. "pudi" (quarter gram packets) of good quality drug is a little over a USD, far higher than the usual price of 25 cents per pudi of Peddlers take up their profession for money, which he/she brown sugar. Depending on the business capacity of the ped- earns but they continue living in the same locality.A permanent dler, he/she deals with 250 gms to 5 KGs a day. change becomes difficult, unless one leaves the locality after getting a good break. Being tied down by circumstances they Peddlers maintain a cordial relationship with the police. rarely manage to make it big or operate in legality,rarely chang- They give a weekly contribution called "hafta" to the police- ing their lifestyle with more money coming in. A change would men. When the business is doing well, then they have to give raise difficult questions and to continue the business, they need a larger contribution. At times rival peddlers in the same area to live in the streets in a known locality. inform the police about the status of business. Though they maintain a cordial relationship with officials, they are at times Community support is important in case of trouble and arrested depending on the pressure from the top for some helps prevent people becoming police informers. Peddlers help action. The peddlers are not happy with such interference, at local people financially during a crisis, to ensure some support the same time they sympathise with the officials predicament. or at least non-interference in their affairs.

On being arrested, a peddler doesn't have to end his busi- Their only escape from their reality is to imitate the elite as ness, another member of the family can take over and manage far as possible. Going to the expensive hotel close by for their it. On other occasions when the business in one area is com- meals on a daily basis.While others go with their family/friends, pletely disrupted, another new area crops up to cater to drug the peddlers go for lunch and dinner with all those who facili- users' demand. Known as the balloon effect, it illustrates the tate their trade, around six to ten persons and spend a major limitation of token intervention. share of their earnings on food and drinks.

In spite of the high returns they rarely change their lives dras- tically,unlike major players in organised crime with NRI accounts to convert illegal earnings. The peddler has limited options, banks are often out of their reach. For example, when Inder tried

FORMER NEXT 31 Chapter 1 to save his drug money in the bank he got into difficulties. The Despite the money they save for the family, the children bank was close to his house and the bank manager questioned remain illiterate,unable to manage money in a productive man- him about his source of income. ner. There is often this false impression that the income will never stop. They tend to waste it on anything they fancy. The He found it difficult to accept that a person living in a shack lifestyle of the peddler and his/her family continue to remain could make around USD 125-250 a week. Inder claimed that he the same.The worst happens when the peddler dies for there is dealt in stolen property and the same week withdrew his money never any document relating to the money/assets he/she saying his mother was unwell, and left Bombay for sometime. saved. Only a few manage to save in distant places and manage to shutdown business in Bombay and shift their base totally. Peddlers have evolved other ways of saving money.One is to purchase gold and keep it with the local "Marwadi". The gold is often pawned for far less than its actual worth. At times they The World of the Actors in Crime give money to the local Marwadi who, in return, lends it out on interest and gives a small percentage to the peddler. Female In this section, we base ourselves on primary data collected peddlers' often take their guards with them, to ensure that the from 23 actors in the world of organised crime. Many factors Marwadi does not cheat them.They also save up in fixed assets, may have contributed to their entry into crime such as Low self- procured in the name of relatives and at times outside the city, esteem,social tension,fear,neighbourhood conditions (in many such as land. areas, crime is a daily reality), economic insolvency resulting from family poverty, failure of family business or loss of employ- In addition to regular expenses paid to the police and local ment, falling down from grace. goondas in the form of hafta,they have to be prepared for major raids. Invariably a large sum is kept within reach with a close The process of primary data collection friend or relative,which can be drawn day or night.It is this facil- The interviews depended on the researchers’ gaining the ity of timing that makes banks inconvenient. acceptance of and establishing a rapport with the actors. Of help were contacts established through people known to the Another expenditure of the peddler is the investment on actors yet not involved in criminal activities. These people community support. The peddler can never do business with- understood the researchers’ interests to be purely humane and out the community turning a blind eye on his illegal activities. academic. This he/she achieves by giving money to those in need and by investing money on close family members. Often a close rela- Primary data collection from the actors in the world of crime tive can take a huge amount merely by hinting about the possi- was complicated by the unpredictability of their occupation, bility of informing the police. making it difficult to fix up interviews and expect adherence to any schedule. Our organisation (the National Addiction Expenses involving arrest invariably drains the peddler, in Research Centre — NARC) runs a free hospital for addicts,which addition to lawyer’s fees, police bribes, he ends up paying a has treated over 6000 patients drawn from the slum and pave- huge hafta to gang members inside the jail. When members ment dwellers of Mumbai. The fact that we were from NARC hear of a peddler amidst them, he is immediately targeted. The reassured our respondents. Some of them had seen us in vari- gang leaders collect regular hafta and ensures that the peddler ous drug dens over the years and never suspected us as being spends on him and on his associates. The media has reported police informers or agents. However, it was not rosy all the way. instances of Arun Gawli gang beating up inmates detained Despite being contacted by people trusted by them, some under NDPS Act for obtaining protection money to the tune of respondents did put a tail on us up to our office. On one occa- 1000 to 4000 USD. This has happened within the jail premises sion, they followed the principal investigator up to her resi- and with the knowledge of the officials there (Ranade, 1991). dence.

FORMER NEXT 32 Chapter 1 It became evident that the researchers had gained the trust is at best speculative. We have made an attempt to get to the of the actors and that the genuineness of their inquiry was reality as much as possible. accepted when they agreed to spare long hours for the interviews. The interviews were free flowing with no notes being a) Initiation into crime made during the initial interviews — to facilitate rapport build- Though case studies from primary data for this research ing and avoid breaks of thought out answers. Some of our chapter that several field level operators joined OCGs to achieve respondents were willing to permit us to take brief notes of the financial success and to attain quasi-respectability, they do not interviews, but most were not. Details of each interview were explain the entire picture. Currently there is a case in court of a noted after the session. Where insufficient data was available wealthy diamond trader, who also doubled as a film-financier, follow up interviews were conducted. being accused of collusion with the OCGs; money laundering and routing of extortion money into the share markets. If the The interviews were not free of hiccups.With experience, we official line is true, how can the deprivation related theories learnt to refine our non-verbal communication. Once an inter- explain a billionaire’s entry into OCGs? May be for such people viewee abruptly terminated the interview.Later he explained to entry into OCGs may be necessitated by their occupations. The the contact person that he was being taped.The researcher had case of O.P.Singh who was recently arrested in Delhi would per- in fact put her hand inside her handbag, absentmindedly, dur- haps require a complicated explanation. Most of his family ing the conversation.Extreme care was taken thereafter to keep members are teachers and academics including his father and handbags at a distance. On another occasion an interviewee, elder brother. He has a master’s degree from the University of still wanted by the police, insisted that the interview room be Mumbai and was employed as quality control officer at locked from outside, to make others assume that the room was Mazagaon Docks in Bombay till the early 1990s. Currently he empty. has been charged with extortion and twenty police stations in Bombay want him for various offences connected with the It was difficult to retain the detached researcher's role underworld. "His entry into crime was by compulsion and not throughout when criminals often shared their life stories for the choice according to police records" (Mid-Day,1st June,2001).There first time,especially traumatic experiences.Interviews scheduled are yet others who have had other options to change their lives for half an hour, sometimes stretched on for three to four hours. but they still join the gang perhaps for the thrill and joy of being Listening to first hand descriptions of violent acts of crime in a a part of the fast life. detached manner was not an easy task. We could maintain a non-judgmental attitude throughout this exercise only because Cultural deviance theory explains crime in terms of sociali- of our firm belief that existential reality and development sation and environment. A person turns criminal learning crim- dynamics have a major role to play in a person's decision to step inal behavior from role models, usually friends or family mem- into a life of crime. bers. Unless he/she experiences countervailing examples of law-abiding behavior, the person ends up being a criminal.This The respondents too had their own difficulties as can be can be said to be the case of people entering crime, in certain noted by the exclamation of an interviewee: "So, you have come pockets of the city, where the gang has a total control over that to listen to me be little myself for your research purpose! " area.

Reliability of data Whereas, the control theory states that crime is caused by Data presented here have been cross-checked with two or alienation from the surrounding social institutions, a person more different sources for reliability. With actors (members of becomes a delinquent because his bond with society is weak or the OCGs), repeated interviews were done for the purpose. broken. There are four elements of bonds between the individ- However, with most things to do with the Mumbai mafia, reli- ual and society: able data are hard to come by and most of the media reporting

FORMER NEXT 33 Chapter 1 . Attachment (defined as involvement with others) Entry into the world of crime occurs as a result of the com- . Commitment (investment of personal resources in bination of the social reality that creates relative deprivation legitimate goal) and individualism. The irony of the situation is illustrated in the . Involvement (involvement in conventional activities) case of a woman who began drug peddling because she was . Belief (defined as acceptance of national social val- not willing to tolerate sexual abuse when she worked as a ues). housemaid after her husband passed away. On hearing her predicament, a friend who was in the trade suggested she A few cases in our data illustrate the despair faced at a entered it. young age as result of non-attainment of some of these values, especially attachment,being cut off from socialising institutions In another instance a woman had taken up part time work as such as family, school, religious institutes and community. a sex worker and in the process had a police official as a regular customer. On knowing that someone from the police was fre- In the city, migrant populations are vulnerable to induction quenting her place, her friends from another locality who ped- into criminal careers as a result of social disintegration. This is dled drugs requested her to keep their stuff in her residence. especially true in the case of second generation migrants dis- Under the given circumstances, the chance of any checking tak- placed from the organised sector witnessing the economic suc- ing place was minimal.She obliged them and in return they took cess of a few without themselves having the resources to obtain care of her monetary needs. This arrangement was disturbed it. Unlike first-generation migrants, the second-generation when a senior official came to check out on the police personnel migrants have very little contact with their native culture, which on receiving a complaint.The police official was transferred and leads to their marginalisation. However, it is not just the she was left with no source of income and so she shifted her migrants who are vulnerable.Factors of relative deprivation and locality and began peddling drugs with her friends. individualism, in combination, make the situation fluid. It is no longer possible to identify any specific group (be it a minority or As per the limited data available, the factors that in combi- migrants or others) as being susceptible to crime. nation lead to an entry into the world of crime are: poverty, disruption in social setting, lack of adequate social support, alien- In Bombay, those who indulge in crime (financial and other ation from social institutions, absence of skills for upward types) are not necessarily from the marginalised groups. mobility in the legitimate world, contact with individuals Instances of middle class youth involved in extortion, is a clear involved in crime, proximity to places vulnerable to crime (such indication of the difficulty in ascertaining the causes of crime. as docks and involvement in dealing with stolen property), Stock market frauds defy any such notion that the poor or the need to sustain the drug use of a partner/self, introduction to minorities are alone in the crime world. Even the definition of criminal world in the Children's Remand Home, being a tourist crime becomes difficult as the legitimate trade is closely entan- guide (satisfying clients’ requirements), desire to protect family, gled with the illegitimate as in the case of the film industry — its desire to make fast money and exposure to fast, luxurious life sources of finance are invariably from black marketeers. Jewelry style. In order to give some insights on the local scene, some makers and shops are used to and continue to depend more on cases are presented here as illustrations. smuggled gold than the legal gold (Bhagirathi, 2000). This is mainly to avoid paying taxes. Seldom do many jewelry shops give receipts.Their books of accounts are often sui generis. Case A However, both primary and secondary data on the process of Mr. Raj’s parents had migrated to Bombay to make a living entry into crime show that involvement in crime cannot be settling in a colony on the suburbs of Bombay. His family being explained away by any single perspective. two married sisters, a younger brother and his mother. In the early eighties they were relocated to another suburb.

FORMER NEXT 34 Chapter 1 In the earlier suburb, he used to work at a zari (embroidery) Raj began to socialise with his new friend and enjoyed their workshop and gave whatever he earned to his family and kept life style of spending money on good clothes, food and drinks. only a small percentage for himself. The sudden relocation Raj never had money to spend on these items, it is others in the changed his life. Having shifted during the monsoons they group who took care of his expenses. His time for repayment found no shelter even from the rain. The temporary houses came when one day he was woken up from his sleep and taken were made of thick plastic sheets thrown over bamboo sticks, to a place and told to do a "job".Which was to slash a person he the winds kept blowing away the plastic during the rains. never knew.

He tried to get a job in vain.There where no small businessmen, no workshops with there being no infrastructure. Besides, Case B some had sold everything and shifted to another place. Raj’s mother began to sell what assets they had in the form of orna- Mr. Babar, aged 45 lives with his wife and two children in a ments. Everyday in the morning he left home with hope but suburb of Bombay. He did his eleventh std in the Urdu medium. returned in the evening totally disheartened. Further education required good knowledge of English, and he was not familiar with the language.In order to continue his edu- While looking around for a job some friends of his who were cation he needed to go for tuitions, which his parents could not pick-pockets asked him to join them. Since he did not have the afford.Thus, he discontinued his studies. skills for pick-pocketing, he was supposed to be their bodyguard in case of trouble. He had to divert the attention of the He used to stay in a boarding school coming home for holi- public and ensure that the person with the money left. days. Often, he witnessed lumpen elements in the slum area Pick pocketing is never done by a single individual but by a harass his father on one pretext or another. His father, soft by small group. This ensured that the person who actually picked nature, never retaliated. Seeing their physique, he worked on the pocket could pass on the stolen items to another group improving his body and boxing skills. After school hours he member. The Bombay public, always harassed by pick-pockets, used to practice in a deserted area close to the slum. Initially never let a person off in one piece if found with the stolen item with a novice friend, picking up a few hints on boxing he began on him. He did the work for a few months, but was not happy practicing with other boxers. with it as his mother kept abusing him for his involvement in crime. Prepared, he waited for the local lumpen elements to come, when they did, he ensured that they would think twice before Much later, he came across one of his old friends who had coming again.The group was surprised, they had never expect- just completed his sentence for murder. He began to socialise ed any protest. They were just going around doing the regular with this friend and his criminal circle of friends. According to business of troubling everyone, which included Babar’s father. him till then his life had been little "teda" (deviant), but with his They never troubled his family again and Babar earned the rep- new circle of friends his life became completely teda. utation of being a tough guy.

While hanging around with his new friends from the crime In between he had begun to work in a shop at the docks as world, a rich man in the locality approached Raj and told him, a painter. As an assistant earning a regular monthly income. It "You do not have to do what you are doing. I am willing to support was when he married and had a child that the money he got you". Raj replied that he would be unable to support Raj forever, from the docks proved barely sufficient to run a family, leaving on a continuous basis, and he was not willing to stand in front him pondering. of anyone’s house and ask for money on a daily basis. Since being dependent on anyone’s sympathy made him feel very A friend then introduced him to beer. Never too short of uncomfortable. cash, this friend had always tried to support him. Then he went

FORMER NEXT 35 Chapter 1 on to hard liquor, on a regular basis.The drinking sessions went His sister was having a bath, while waiting for her to come on till late, leaving him too tired to work the next day. Being out he saw food all ready and decided to serve himself, as he absent from work on a regular basis, one fine day he lost his job. was getting late. Just as he filled his plate and began eating, his sister came in from her bathroom and saw him with the food.He He did not mind being thrown out, his friend continued to told her that since he was getting late for school, he decided to provide him with good food and liquor. He also organised a job help himself. for him, as a coolie for passenger ships.There were regular passenger ships those days and he got at least one or two assign- His sister took away his plate, removed the food and said ments a month. Making around Rs. 3000-Rs. 4000 an assign- "Either you work and earn your food or if you want to study, go to ment, he was earning an adequate income to run his family. school and forget your hunger". His eyes brimmed over, as he recalled the incident, and he said he could never forget the inci- He was one of those who put the ladder up and went inside dent.That day he went home and threw his bag on the floor and the ship when it docked.He was to inquire whether any passenger said goodbye to his education. wanted his group’s help to avoid paying a huge duty. Learning from the passengers what goods they carried with them, he He did try to get odd jobs, but found it difficult as he was passed on this information to his group member which included very young. Then he began to steal salt from the salt field and the clearing agent. then sold it at a distant market place. For every bag of salt he earned Rs. 10 to Rs. 15. He gave his entire earnings to his moth- Later, carrying the luggage to the official they had made a er, as he had no vices and did not feel the need for personal deal with, he ensured that other officials did not notice it, to money. avoid trouble. Each passenger gave Rs. 3000 to Rs. 4000 (in various currencies) which was then pooled by the group and A person then suggested that he seek a job at a hotel close shared equally. Babar, thus shifted from a regular job, to one to a building construction site. He got the job and was very that manipulated the system and supported illegal entry of happy there. His boss gave him some space to sleep, food and a goods. monthly payment of Rs. 300 - 400.The boss also bought his toi- letry for the month.The monthly payment was always collected by one of his family members. Case C One day he was sitting on a high stool and frying snacks, Mr. Sheikh aged 44, has been in Bombay from childhood. His when another boy dropped a can from the shelf above which parents migrated to Bombay to improve their lives. He had his tipped the pan over. The hot oil fell on Sheikh’s legs, he parents, three sisters and two brothers. The mother had given screamed in pain. birth to eleven children of whom only six survived.The rest died at birth or during infancy, of illness. In early childhood his father After that he was bedridden for days, his boss tried to con- passed away. sole him saying that his earnings would continue and gave him home remedies to deal with the wound. Later, he thought, he After going to school till the second standard, he had to dis- would feel better if he went home and so took leave from his continue his education, because of financial problems. Sheikh boss and went home. Within a few days his mother, asked him loved studies and went to school regularly.One day before leav- to stay with his sister for sometime. ing, feeling hungry he asked his mother for food. His mother told him to go to his sister’s house as it was not yet ready.His sis- At his sister’s place, he was told to go back to his mother. ter lived nearby with her husband. Though tired of being sent from one place to another and being criticised about being careless and a burden on others he never

FORMER NEXT 36 Chapter 1 thought of asking them about his having given them his entire Case D income for so many months. Kishore lived in a suburb of Bombay where his parents had During this period while walking by a deserted place close migrated. When he was five, his father died. After his death, his to the salt pans, he saw a big snake. A part of him wanted to run mother was married off by her family. His mother wanted him away and another part said "What the hell, this is the end there is and his younger sister to be with her, but an uncle refused to anyway nothing but pain in my life". The next thing he remem- send Kishore to his mother. Kishore being the last symbol of his bered was two adults shaking his shoulders and asking him why brother, he wanted his nephew to stay with him. he stood there in front of the snake. Apparently, they had chased the snake away. After being separated, he used to lie around his uncle's shack.The shack had a small attic where he used to spend most He then looked for other options and got work at a huge of the time. No one thought of sending him to school.The food mutton factory. His job was to carry the carcass and hang it on he received was hardly enough to satisfy his hunger. a dangling hook.To do this he had to walk with his back towards the hook.The carcass made the hook swing and on placing the One day his aunt decided to send him to school, but no one carcass, he had to move to one side, or the entire weight would bothered to buy him his books. He often went to school hungry hit him on his back. and ravenously ate the small pieces of bread and drank the little milk they distributed at school. After one year, he left school One day while moving away,he slashed his leg on a chopper to look for odd jobs. held by a butcher standing close by. He did not feel much pain and took no notice.Some time later he went over for a chat with He took up a job as a handcart puller but found it difficult as the women who prepared the items for packing. They were he was not very healthy. Around this time he heard of a new good to him because he was so small.One of them told him that product available which could improve one's life style. He had there was blood on his leg, bending over, he saw the blood, seen others change their life by marketing this new product. assuming it must have come from the meat he brushed it away. He then realised it was his own blood and fainted. He returned He contacted a friend whose sister was in the trade.The lady home to find the earlier experience, of being shunted from one put him in touch with a person who supplied the drug.Taken on place to another, repeated. as an assistant, he learnt the trade, changed his life, and went on to become an expert in drug trade. One night, two friends came over and they sat around discussing their lives. They worked out that if they continued b) Recruitment Process working, they would never reach anywhere. They would have Entry into the world of crime and subsequent recruitment by to look at other alternatives. One of them knew people mak- an organised group is a process and not events that follow one ing a living stealing for others in the docks, so they all decided after the other.In general,there are two methods through which to join in. This person later went up in the hierarchy of crime a person may be recruited into a gang. One through the selec- and has now many people working under him. tion process from a group of new aspirants and another,through the selection from inmates serving their sentence in jails.

New Aspirants New aspirants are usually from the same locality or they reach the circle through word of mouth. No one is selected into

FORMER NEXT 37 Chapter 1 the gang when they are in operation (Thomas, 1998), unless a Once comfortable with the routine, he befriends people and known member from the gang vouches for him. develops some vices. Then, the gang strikes. They engineer his arrest usually on a petty charge. Then the "social worker" steps The person who is the "sponsor" is therefore the one who in. (He is a person whose job is to bribe lawyers, lower court keeps a watch on the individual's activity, sincerity and loyalty magistrates, policemen, to ensure — if not a quick discharge, at to the group. At first they are not given any specific activity, but least a judicial remand rather than police custody for the boys. later they may be asked to do acts such as collection or carrying This ensures that they are not bashed up by the cops). The boy money/arms from one area to another. is assured that the gang leaders will protect him, and that the social workers will get him a judicial remand instead of police After the aspirant has entered the world of crime he is custody.The individual is extremely grateful to the social work- exposed to a different life-style without any personal expense. er and group. He develops good feelings towards the sponsor which strengthen the sense of loyalty which is crucial to avoid any risk In jail, he is well looked-after, he gets good food and meets in case he, the new recruit, is arrested.To avoid any risk, the per- gangsters who brag about their killings, their life style. Inside son is observed under different situations. the jail, his indoctrination is almost complete. When out of prison, he is asked to lie low for some time before he is given his Some industries often have established links between the first big assignment. This can range from passing on a weapon criminal world, the elite and the government machinery. Here, to assisting someone in a killing to delivering extortion threats. individuals under extreme economic deprivation are willing to On the successful completion of this job he becomes a gradu- make a fast buck and can be selected and socialised into the ate ready for a career in the underworld (M. Baghal, 1998). world of crime.The textile industry is one example.

The flourishing textile industry in 1976 employed as much Recruitment in Jails as 27 percent of the city’s population, by 1991 the figure went down to 12.5 percent. In 1998, those employed by textile mills Life in jail is a different world in itself, people who are were down to a single digit figure. This created a sense of root- respected are those who evoke maximum fear through their lessness among children of the retrenched migrant laborers. deeds and contacts.The most respected person is the one with These second generation migrants have no village to go back links to the gangs, murderers come second and robbers last. It to, Bombay being the only home they have known. is very easy to identify a person who is powerful. He invariably has a handful of "boys" hanging around him to massage him This creates a class of people who feels deprived and exists and run petty errands for him while he lays back and relaxes. in an urban climate that encourages uninhibited expression — it is a lethal combination (Baghel, 1998). Those with the money and the right contacts have nothing to worry about, everything is available to them in jail. Liquor, A member of the Arun Gawli gang described how a young cigarettes, cannabis, brown sugar. When a person smokes, three boy can be socialised into the world of crime and at the same or four people sit around talking to him, waiting for him to throw time feel a sense of gratitude towards the gang members. For the butt to grab it. In case a chillum is smoked, others hang example, a boy may be asked to keep a watch on the move- around to inhale it. ments of a particular person or a policeman, or just count the number of times a patrol van comes into a particular lane. For At times a person becomes so used to the jail that he finds this, he is paid up to Rs. 2000, a handsome bonus for a family it more comfortable then the outside world. A person who has with a monthly income of Rs. 800 to Rs. 1000. Since this is not been in Children's Home (remand home for children) or has illegal, the deal is easily made. been locked up is not scared about going to jail. He knows it is

FORMER NEXT 38 Chapter 1 just another place to learn new skills, further his network and ready.He was surprised at the incident and tried to ask them the increases the avenues to money and power. The conversation reason for their visit.They did not reply to any of his queries. in jail revolves around their criminal activities. When he was ready, they took him to a distant place. As Raj By the time he leaves jail he is well-seasoned in all acts of was in the habit of drinking, he did not have a clear mind.When crime, even the fear of imprisonment disappears. The workload they reached the place Raj saw a person who was totally sur- is also not too heavy in jail. Jails are preferred by criminals as a prised to see a group of individuals with weapons. One of the place to earn money or to avoid the wrath of rival gangs. A rela- group members overpowered the stranger, another member of tive of one peddler, when jailed, joined a gang from within the the group placed a weapon in Raj’s hand and told him to slash jail and then began to send money regularly from within the jail the stranger. Raj had no option but to follow instructions and to his home. Though there is supposed to be no money trans- collect the payment for the job. actions inside the jail there is always a way out. Gang members also consider jail as a good hiding place from rival groups. Six members of the Gawli gang avoided paying a bail of Rs. 2000 in Case F order to escape the wrath of rival groups (Times of India, 1994). Mr. Amar aged 45 lived with his parents and siblings. His In the end recruitment is a process where the intentions of father was a "social worker" who enjoyed having money to gain the new entrant are tested out. He becomes accustomed to a acknowledgement and the service of others. There were always different lifestyle until ordinary jobs can no longer satisfy his two to three people hanging around his father massaging his needs. Loyalty and its evidence in acts of crime are extremely hands and legs.Though he spent on others,he avoided spending crucial. For example, when Shakeel, 26, left the village for on his children. Mumbai he started working at Abu Saleem’s (a Dawood gang member) hotel. Amar was very scared of his father and disliked him, but never could express it. As a result of his rift with his family, he In Mumbai, he met Abu’s friendKhurshid, another don. Soon, began to spend more time outside his house. He used to be Shakeel was asked to prove his loyalty to Khurshid during a friendly with a group that was involved in many anti-social shootout between Khurshid’s gang and that of his arch rival. activities. They spent most of the time, from day till night-time, When Shakeel bumped off the kingpin of the rival gang, together, and through them he began to meet people from an Shakeel found instant entry into gangdom. In a recent trend organised group. Since most of their time is spent drinking and after the Bomb blast, the gangs managed by bosses from out- eating together, a friendly relationship develops. side are preferring new recruits with a clean background in order to reduce police detection (Sujay, Gupta, 1998). Recruitment depends on the interest shown by the new to be recruited. No one goes out of his way trying to bring a person into the circle, but invariably a new person gets enamored Case E by the life style.Which includes drinking at expensive bars, having good food of different kinds and driving cars. The lifestyle Below are the details of case A mentioned earlier in this attracts the individual, he continues to move in the company of study: this is how Mr. Raj, who had enjoyed life having lots of new-found friends, and then without realising it accepts the money and without having to spend on anything, was forced assigned "job". without any coercion to enter crime. Without being clear as to what the work is about, he goes He was fast asleep when four people with weapons entered along with the group and does his first violent crime, for which his house.They woke him up from his sleep and told him to get he is given enough money. After this, he either keeps a low pro-

FORMER NEXT 39 Chapter 1 file or leaves Bombay for some time until he is ready to take on In Bombay, a clear illustration of selectivity of justice is the further assignments. conviction of those arrested under NDPS Act, 1985, and people on trial after being caught with a small quantity of drugs. Often it Often the attempt is to recruit those who hardly have any is the poor who are caught with small quantities of drugs or support structure. "Besahara" ( person without any family sup- unsuspecting first time mules who have no resources to seek port and poor) people are given preference. Amar pointed out legal help and consequently languish in jails (Anuradha, 1998(b). one assistant as an example. (Amar has six to seven youth hanging around, willing to do various job for him). He said, his assis- It is also observed that big timers manage to get released on tant Shan has no support structure to satisfy his dream to technical grounds and small timers are at times convicted. As make it big. Having just completed his "VIII std." he dreams of per case number: 67/1989, Shri. Kwabena Osei, accused of getting a secure and easy government job. In India, the mini- smuggling Rs.10 lakh worth brown sugar, is set free on techni- mum qualification required for a government job is a pass at cal grounds. At the same time as per case number 137/1993 the High School Level. Sanjay Laxman Patole, is convicted for possession of three grams of brown sugar. Amar placed him with a private agency, but he left because it involved hard work. Amar mentioned he helped Shan for many In another case, 375/1993, Daniel Odemonam was accused years and that Shan considered him a big brother. Shan would of smuggling 2 Kgs. of brown sugar, but was set free as legal do anything for Amar without blinking an eye. Amar said the procedural requirements were not followed. In contrast, case group, if they recruit at all, would recruit such people who are 38/1988, Vinod Kisan Zaveri was found in possession of seven extremely loyal. pills of charas and was convicted. Other instances are cases of financial frauds and the plight of small timers in their tussle He said that unlike earlier days,today’s youth from the slums with the law.Those involved in big financial frauds of billions of want to enjoy the pleasures of what money can buy without dollars hardly ever enter jail, while the arrests of small time rob- much struggle. All the six assistants of Amar are school failures, bers and those guilty of fraud keep increasing. who dreamt of getting a government job. Unable to do so, they say they like hanging around with Amar and doing any "job" for A different illustration of selectivity is seen in the nexus him. between gang members and jail officials. A judge recently dismissed a case against Anthony Veerswamy (alias Kaliya) and six c) Selectivity of Justice others for rioting and threatening witnesses inside the jail.They This aspect has been clearly illustrated by Edwin are all associates of Samad Khan.Samad Khan (nephew of Karim Sutherland (1940) in Young, 1999. According to him " The theo- Lala) was in jail standing his trial. ry that criminal behavior in general is either due to poverty or to the psychopathic and sociopathic conditions associated with From inside the jail he ordered his associate to bring the wit- poverty can be shown to be invalid… the generalisation is based ness against him, Mr. Kashmiri, to the jail premises for cross- on a biased sample which almost entirely omits the behavior of examination. Mr. Kashmiri, who came with his son, Nasir, was white collar criminals.The criminologists restricted their data,not harassed and beaten inside the jail's judicial room. They also as a principle but for reasons of convenience and due to igno- forced him to sign blank papers before letting him go. All this rance. They were drawn largely from cases dealing with criminal was done in the presence of jail officials. The judge who dealt courts and juvenile courts, agencies principally used for criminals with the case said it surprised him why the officials who were in from the lower economic strata. Their data are grossly biased the jail premises were not accused in the case. In addition to from the point of view of the economic status of criminals. this, he stated that he did not understand why the big fry was Consequently their generalisation that criminality is closely asso- allowed to go scot-free and the smaller fry was implicated ciated with poverty, is not justified". (Chandrashekhar, 1995).

FORMER NEXT 40 Chapter 1 Another method adopted by the police to manage the prisons all over the state. For gang members carried over their show is to undertake selective intervention depending on the grudges into jails and continued warfare within the jail. As an political pressure. Based on the political party in power, certain example, in 1994, when Gawli members were sent to Arthur Jail, organised groups are selected for intervention and cleaning they were promptly dispatched to Thane Jail, for the former up. This leads to small groups cropping up to fill the vacuum. detained many members of the Dawood Ibrahim group (Times The police dare not disturb the new bred of COGs for they rep- of India, 1994). resent the source of extra income. This was clearly seen in the case of the attack on Varadha Rajan groups, or the harassment In the case of NDPS Act, there is a clear reflection of police of Gawli's group after he began to enter politics (Pereira, 1986) giving in to pressure by "filling up suspects/cases". This was It is interesting that the fall of Varadha Rajan coincided with the especially true during the initial period, when police used to death of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. round up drug users for filling in their case requirements. This subjected them to further trial for 3 to 4 years, before their cases d) Problematisation of punishment and culpability were heard.In some cases the judges began to set them free and When crime increases in terms of frequency and serious- reprimanded the police for the way the cases were handled. ness, the law enforcement machinery is faced with the predicament of how to deal with it bureaucratically. More so when it It is probably the need to intervene in a cost-effective man- has limited resources at its disposal. As a result, the bureaucrat- ner and portray the picture of intense police action that led to ic machinery strives to be cost-effective and selective in terms the sanction of encounter killings. Unlike the eighties, the of its interventions (Young, 1999). nineties, after the bomb blast, saw an increase in extortion cases. This was partly because gang leaders facing an econom- Under such difficult circumstances, along with the pressure ic crunch in their other ventures, asked their lieutenants back on government to maintain an economic and effective service, home to take care of themselves. Another explanation was the officials naturally enter into plea bargaining and corruption.The arrival of new players in the field. dependence of police on criminals as informers to make major seisures or catch big timers is one manifestation of this predica- Since the gang members were used to a luxurious life style, ment. A clear example is seen in the case of Iqbal Mirchi claim- they were forced to use more violence than before to obtain ing to be in lawful business because of the remuneration he has their street tax. The situation was complicated as the recession collected as a police informer. Even from other sources it was also made it more difficult for the tax payers to meet the found that informers are rarely individuals without a criminal demands of the gangs. The trend for collecting protection background. money began to catch on and new comers tried to cash in on the situation. Educated, unemployed youth began to think of Another instance of plea bargaining of a different kind is this as a quick way to make money. seen in the segregation of inmates in different jails according to their gang affiliation. The power of gangs over the legal deter- An interior decorator collected Rs.30 lakhs through extor- rence/prevention institutions is evident from the day of entry tion, but was caught on his second attempt by the police. On into prison. Invariably, according to the informant, police offi- another occasion the son of a policeman was caught on cials check out the gang affiliation of each person, before charges of extortion along with his friends. He allegedly assigning a cell to him.This is to prevent fighting between rival belonged to Akhil Bharatia Sena which had strong links with the gangs within the jail premises. Gangster, Arun Gawli.

The media has also reported the same arrangements. In the There was also a change in the category of people asked to year 1993, the government machinery was in the process of pay tax.Earlier,only builders,film producers,bar owners and broth- grouping criminals by gang affiliation to be put in different el keepers were tapped for street tax. To meet the financial crisis

FORMER NEXT 41 Chapter 1 they began to tap small time businessmen,doctors,engineers and belonging to any gang. One of them had taken money from a lawyers. Some doctors with a good practice paid up to Rs. 2 lakhs rich person on two occasions, keeping a chopper on his throat. per person. This person had a good contact with the police and ensured that he would no longer be harassed.The police had reported to Interestingly, this shift also affected people's life-style. It was the media that the extortionist tried to shoot at the police and noticed that on exhibiting a luxurious life-style, a huge tax was so they fired back at the gangster.This person had never carried demanded. As a result a lawyer about to throw a luxurious party a pistol and used only a chopper to get his work done. for his daughter's wedding decided to have a small family affair to avoid a tax of Rs.60,000.In another instance an executive who In this context it may be of interest to note that one of the had bought an Opel Astra through a financial scheme returned people working at an office reported that there was a police his car for he could not afford to pay an exorbitant municipal tax shoot-out in their neighborhood.He had been an eyewitness to of Rs. 60,000. According to the executive, harassed day and night the incident. He saw this criminal, wanted for murder, go to a by the local goonda, he was told that anyone purchasing a car in friend's place for dinner. After dinner, the criminal left the the locality had to pay a municipal tax calculated according to friend’s place and was approaching his car, when the police sur- the car's trademark. rounded him. This eyewitness and others saw that the person was unarmed. The police asked him to lift his hands, which he For a Maruti 800/Maruti Zen/Fiat the tax was Rs.20,000 and did, but still they fired. One stray bullet hit a child who was close for a foreign car/Opel Astra it was Rs.60,000. Unable to pay the by.The mother started screaming but the police made it clear to new municipal tax, the executive returned the car. It is alleged her that she had to state that it was the criminal who was shoot- that most of the extortion was being carried out by Municipal ing at the police who injured her son. bodies,Corporations and MLAs.In some instances the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme list was used to identify the new victims for e) The winner takes it all street tax collection (Menezes,1995;Times of India,1998,Times of The view that winner takes all is clearly reflected in the world India, 1999, Indian Express, 1999; Gangwani,1998; Times of India, of crime. While the able ones take risks, manipulate and deal 1998; Balakrishnan, 1998; Indian Express, 1998). ruthlesslyend up as media-adored dons, small timers who undertake direct action are easily eliminated. The impact extortion had on the life-style of people, was certainly bad for business. So the police had to act to create a pub- The dons are able to distance themselves from the act and lic image.This situation made them intervene in a decisive man- thus protect themselves. In case of trouble they either get those ner to prevent proliferation of tax collectors. What could have who can be a threat eliminated or get the best legal brains to get been a better example to stop the trend other than the arrests of them out scot-free on some technical ground or other. Those newcomers and "encounter deaths" of known trouble makers. who have good skills are valued and rarely used. For example a good sharpshooter is used only for important assignments. Soon "encounter death" was also used to settle gang rivalry. It is alleged that Dawood tended to eliminate his own members More than in the world of direct crime, it is in white-collar once they became inconvenient through an "encounter" with crime that this attitude is clearly reflected. People in the world the police. Earlier gang leaders had to hire other persons to do of politics and business who manipulate the system to enhance the job, but now they only have to tip the police who will finish their power and wealth are excused by all. There is hardly any them off in an encounter (Sharan, 1992, Times of India, 1992, serious thought given to the violence created by their manipu- Sharan,1993 and Sharan,1993). lation. Some of the methods they adopt are false insurance claims, creating shell companies, under invoicing/over invoic- According to one informant he knew of people killed in an ing, facilitating hawala/money laundering, and dealing with encounter who were members of the underworld but not smuggled goods. In addition to this, there are other frauds, such

FORMER NEXT 42 Chapter 1 as postal frauds, railway frauds, bank frauds and commercial methods of money laundering within or outside the country. frauds. Hence, it is crucial to address the political and social reality that facilitates the growth of relative deprivation and also the grow- Many cinema halls show huge cinema ticket sales when ing tendency to reaffirm the attitude "Winner takes all". For halls are empty and launder black money on behalf of various such a philosophical base, where white-collar crime is ignored financiers. Another method is to show inflated number of cus- or reprimanded subtly can only create a fertile ground for the tomers in various hotels and launder money through the pro- growth of organised crime, especially through its nexuses with cess.The methods used are numerous, and action taken against political, government and policing agencies.White-collar crime them is rare. Society is unable to cope with the impact caused can only widen the feeling of relative deprivation and can by these practices (Moutussi,1994). directly or indirectly offer a platform for the growth of organised crime. For it is this manipulation that partly creates and perpetuates a scenario of relative deprivation and resultant chaos. Since this Intervention programmes that employ purely punitive solu- violence is not perceivable and unlike the starkly visible extortion cannot by themselves be adequate because of the struction or murder, it is always tolerated.The sad truth is that it is this ture of judicial administration in India. There is no disincentive tolerance that leads to frequent enactment of intolerable crimes, to commit crime here. when it combines with the dynamic force of individualism. There is a need for efforts that are preventive in nature which focus on containing the social and political reality that can act as fertile ground for the growth of organised crime or Conclusion initiate actors into the world of crime.Otherwise these agencies may be providing space for petty criminals to become hard- Organised crime in Bombay is a reality that was created by core actors in the world crime. Only humane intervention of the commissions and omissions of various governments in quality can create an impact on the lives of those who entered Independent India. The general culture of corruption creates a the world of crime for a variety of reasons. fertile ground for it, just as OCGs themselves along with the industrial, business and political elites of India contribute to the A thought of caution has to be stated in this context. It spread of corruption. The penetration of OCGs in Bombay into would be unfortunate when, for better cost-effective manage- various systems of governance is considerable. There are too ment, these correctional institutions are privatised. For such many stakeholders requiring OCGs and too much money is profit-oriented ventures would become a well-oiled machine involved. The situation is such that it can not be eradicated but for the powerful to churn out easily disposable criminals as per can only be contained. the need of the hour.This is not a far-fetched thought, for steps are being taken in certain developed countries to privatise cor- OCGs evolve in structure and functioning depending on the rectional institutions. Last but not least is the silent violence of local situation at a given period of time. This has been the case the state and the powerful on the underprivileged, and the ten- of the Bombay Underworld. We find that in Bombay, the OCGs dency to magnify the portrayal of the violent retaliation of have taken on different types of structures at different points in some of the members of the silent victimised majority, who any time, and they have shown that they are highly adaptive to the way have limited options to vent their frustrations on the pre- environment. The way OCGs are organised today is such that sent society. only ground-level people are penalised or forfeit their wealth. The relationship between the OCGs and the lawful economy Nor is the situation of the underworld insulated from the needs close scrutiny and government policies should be exam- social reality of other states, since they are interlinked either in ined for their potential impact on OCGs. Multi-disciplinary studies the procurement of cheaper disposable criminals or better on OCGs are needed for a better understanding and enforcement.

FORMER NEXT 43 Chapter 1 Modes of trafficking tainers as big as 40 feet are being used.It is not possible to open all containers. For any action to be taken the customs and other (A few examples) agencies require concrete information to nab the culprits. The At times, there has been political and official patronage pro- continued use of sea transport is evident from the seisure of vided to smugglers. As a result, there are many willing to be methaqualone in the Bombay port in 1993. The Narcotics mules while border drug-running operations become extreme- Control Bureau has seised 3330 kgs. of methaqualone. ly profitable to the Mafia. Along with drugs, contraband such as electronic goods, Chinese silk, medicines, saffron and dyes are In addition to heroin, methaqualone is an important com- brought in through the Thar Desert in Rajasthan. modity of trade, especially as exports to African countries. In 1993, 10 seisures of methaqualone were made in Bombay, by In return for the goods, paan, alcohol, bidis, matches and at various agencies (NCB,Customs,DRI and the Police).The highest times sugar are smuggled into Pakistan. The haul of heroin quantity seised was 3350 kilograms and the lowest 55 worth Rs. 78 crore in the international market in Jaisalmer and Kilograms. In 1992, in Zambia the enforcement agency seised in adjoining Barmer districts, takes place along the border of 760 a year 106725 Mandrax tablets that originated from India. odd Kms. with Pakistan. (Rahul, 1987) In one incident at the R.S. During the year 1996-97, there was a reduction in the seisure of Pura sector in the Jammu district of the Indo-Pak border, two methaqualone, it is alleged that this occurred as the manufac- intruders were seen crossing the border. On being challenged, ture of methaqualone began within South Africa itself (NCB they ran back to Pakistan taking advantage of the darkness. On Reports, 1992-1997; Laniel, 2000). searching the area the DRI Amritsar and the BSF Jammu found 21 packets of heroin weighing one kilo each. In 1998, DRI intercepted two consignments of cement booked by South African Airways. On examination of the con- Along with land routes, airways are used, as it is a quick signments, a false plywood partition at the bottom was found. means for trade, for which mules or couriers are employed.As in On breaking the partition, 209 polythene packets containing smuggling,airline personnel are the best mules for trafficking as 167.200 Kilograms of Mandrax tablets were found.Investigation well. In 1997, an Air India pilot was arrested, as his suitcase con- revealed that the documents were forged and the name of M/S tained heroin in its false bottom. He received the suitcase from Larson and Toubro was misused to give authenticity to the con- Banwarlal Hiralal Somani, on behalf of Dinshaw Pastakia a for- signment (1998). mer Air India employee, who wanted the suitcase to be handed over to his relative in New-York. These seisures and others clearly illustrate the market for Mandrax in different parts of Africa. Some of the important According to the customs in Air India there exists a well- places for demand are Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Maputo, organised network for facilitating smuggling. This network is Zimbabwe,Malawi,Dare-salaam and Durban/Johannesburg.The linked to the recruitment of staff, so that the obliged recruits profit margin in the Mandrax trade is quite high according to the can be deployed in the sensitive areas of the air carrier opera- deputy Director of NCB (Mr. Kakkar). A tablet, which is prepared tion (Shinde, 1997). In 1997, the air route from Afghanistan to at local cost price of Rs. 2.5 to Rs. 3.50, can be sold in Africa for $ Raja Sansi Airport, Amritsar, continued to be exploited in the 2 to $ 3 per tablet. Since the cost price is minimal, even large smuggling of heroin, 41 Kilograms of heroin was seised at this seisures do not hamper the business. The production of these Airport in five cases during the year and one Afghan and four tablets is done in a nonoperational factory or in an industrial unit Indian nationals were arrested (NCB, 1997). in an isolated area. Most of these units are located in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. With liberalisation the trade has enhanced the age-old mode of caravan route by including the sea and air routes. As a Another substance being traded is Acetic Anhydride, the result of a certain flexibility in enforcing import restrictions,con- chemical precursor for the manufacture of heroin. In year 1995,

FORMER NEXT 44 Chapter 1 9282 litres of Acetic Anhydride was seised. In 1996 this came Heroin is also locally processed from the opium sold in the down to 4627 and later in 1997 increased to 8311. In 1998, 6197 black market by lawful opium growers. The farmers declare litres of Acetic Anhydride was seised from different parts of the lower yields per hectare, and keep part of the yield for them- country. While reports indicate a decline in smuggling through selves, which is later sold and processed in laboratories. From land borders, there are indications of the increase in smuggling 1992-1998, over fifty such laboratories have been destroyed. In through sea cargo consignments by making false declarations 1998, eight such laboratories were destroyed in Madhya (NCB, 1998). Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Among the mules arrested, the largest number in 1998 were those from Nigeria (26), followed by Nepal (17), United Kingdom (17) and Sri Lanka (12). Other than Africa, Europe is an important destination for drugs routed through India. In 1999 at Delhi international airport a German national was caught smuggling Rs. 1.86 crore worth (1.860 kg) of heroin. Mr. Richard Heinrich was arrested while awaiting a flight to Amsterdam. He had heroin concealed in his suitcase and shoes (PTI 1999). He admitted that he had got the drug in Islamabad and was carrying it to Amsterdam. He was caught while on transit in Delhi on his way to Amsterdam. He had arrived by Royal Nepal Airline and was flying to Amsterdam from India.

Experienced mules willing to take risks are highly sought after in this trade. Nigerians and other African nationals are known for their risk-taking ventures as mules. Nigerians have been caught at airport trying to smuggle drugs by carrying it within their system in the form of capsules. A 25-year-old Nigerian lost his life this year trying to traffic 35 capsules containing heroin. One of the capsules burst within his system in the intestines. Each of these capsules was four centimeters in length and one centimeter in diameter and all of them covered with tape (Sharma, 1999). In another instance, a Ghanaian was held in check and was found to be carrying drug in his intestines (Indian Express, 1999).

According to one of the interviewees the people who carry the drug in capsule form in their stomach have to be extremely careful. They have to calculate the flight time and the time required for reaching the safe destination. Based on which they consume the capsules. Another precaution taken by these mules is to ensure that they will not need to use the toilet by smoking a huge quantity of heroin or cannabis which helps them avoid using toilets for longer periods.

FORMER NEXT 45 Chapter 1 Economic Intelligence Service, Feb, 1999, Bombay: Centre for Bibliography Monitoring Indian Economy.

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FORMER NEXT 46 Chapter 1 - Bibliography NOORANI, A.G., "Rule Of Law And Organised Crime Maharashtra Times of India (20/10/98). Control Of Organised Crime Bill", Economic and Political Weekly ______, 1998, "Recession has hit gangland too", 1st may 1999. Bombay: Times of India, (20/10/98) BALAKRISHNA, S. and SEN, Somit, 1998, "Arrest of Dawood aide is Narcotics Control Bureau India — Annual Reports (1992-98), a blow to the Gang", Bombay :Times of India, (24/10/98) Faridabad: Government of India. BASU, S. and SAHGAL P., 1995,"The Big Chilli", Bombay: OMVEDT, G., 2001, "The Restaurant and Bar Economy", Parts I & II, (15-22 April) The Hindu,7th and 8th May, 2001. BHAGAT, R., 1993, "Smugglers exploit gold import loopholes", VAIDHYANATH, A, 1999, "Consumption and Gold in India,Trends Indian Express, (25/3/93). and Determinants", in Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay: EPW Research Foundation. February,20, 1999 (pp. 471-476) BHARTIYA, N., 1997, "Smugglers adopt new methods to sneak in foreign currency", Bombay: Times of India (30/4/97) RENNER, C.T., and Krisby Cecil, 1988, Mafia enforcer: A true story of life and death in the Mob, New York: Boston Books. BHARDWAJ, A., 1992, "Dubai Agencies involved, smugglers insuring gold", Bombay: Times of India, (22/10/92) WHITE,T. P.,1985, "The Poppy" in National Geographic, February. BHATIA, S., 1988, "Gold Rush", Bombay: Free Press Journal (5/7/88) YOUNG JOCK, 1999,The Exclusive Society: New Delhi: Sage publication. BHATT, S., 1988, "The Weekly interview, Dawood Ibrahim,The War Lord", Bombay: The illustrated Weekly (July 10) Clippings From Newspaper/Magazine ABRAHAM, M., 1995, "Double deals. His interesting links with BLITZ, 1989, "As Dawood Ibrahim’s star wanes… Bombay Cops let Bombay Customs, Did he rat on other dons", Cochin: new dons bloom", Bombay: Blitz, (11/3/89) The week (23/4/95). Bombay: 1989:The Underworld Gunning for trouble (Dec22-Jan 6) The Asian Age 25th April 2001. Bombay: 1991,The smugglers syndicate (Feb7-21) The Asian Age 24th April 2001 CHANDRASHEKHAR, 1995, "Court raps Jail officials", Bombay : BAGHEL, M., 1998, "When the mills close down, Mafia comes The Daily (7/11/95) to recruit", Bombay Indian Express (28/11/98) CHAKRAVARTHY, S. and B. RADHIKA, 1988, "After Varadha who", BALAKRISHNA, S, 1993, "Gawli Gang", Bombay: The illustrated Bombay: Sunday Observer (10/1/88). weekly of India, (Aug 14 20) CHUACHAN, C., 1998,"Romesh promised poll funds to 52 MPs", ______, 1993, "Tanya Koli’s murder, Realignment Calcutta: The Statesman, (7/11/98). of forces in Underworld", Bombay: Times of India (29/9/93). ______, 1995, "Chota Rajan’s Gang guns down Sautya DHAR, L., 1986, "Dawood Ibrahim is Don", Calcutta : in Dubai", Bombay: Times of India (7/8/95). Telegraph(11/6/91) ______, 1995,"Chhota Rajan gang agrees to reveal its cache’s location", Bombay: Times of India (25/8/95). Economic Times, 1995, "Smuggling in drug up, Gold down", ______, 1998, Cash trapped gangsters Bombay: Economic Times, (15/5/95) "widen tax base", Bombay:

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FORMER NEXT 48 Chapter 1 - Bibliography RAHUL, B.,1987,"War or Peace, the caravan moves on", Bombay: SHINDE, P.,1988,"Advantage Dawood Ibrahim,The Underworld The Indian Post, (10/4/87) Encounters", Bombay: Indian Express, (11/3/88). SHINDE, P.,1997,"Drugs on high, Air India Heroin cases reveals RANADE, S., 1991, "Gawli men beat up Jail inmates", Bombay: smuggling network", Bombay: Midday (19/10/97 ). Times of India. (3/12/91) RANADE,S.,1997,"Extortionist switch to house breaking",Bombay: SEN, S., 1998, "Down and Out in Mumbai and Chennai? Try Times of India, (7/12/97). Extortion", Bombay: Times of India, (15/11/98).

RATTANANI, J., 1994, "A don at Dusk", Bombay: Indian Express, Sunday, 1988, "The law of the Streets", Bombay: (1/3/88). (25/10/94) Sunday, 1988, "Beyond the Godfather", (18-24 Dec). Sunday, 1994, "Death of a Don", (July 3-9). RAVIR, N., 1998, "The ‘D’ Company", Sunday (6-14 Nov). SYANI, A., S., 1987, "Encounter with the Don", Bombay: The Daily SALONI, M., 1997, "Mumbai re-emerges as the nodal centre for (24/4/87). drug smuggling", Bombay : Times of India (12/9/1997) The Daily, 1986, "Karim Lala’s Plea Dismissed", Bombay: The Daily SANGHVI,Vir, 1997,"Going Great Guns", Calcutta: The telegraph (16/8/86). (31/8/97) The week, 1989, "The Killing Business, Bombay Mafia", Cochin: SARDESAI, Sardesai, Rajdeep,1993, "The reluctant Don", Bombay: The week, (Jan15-27 1989). Times of India (11/5/93) The Telegraph, 1994, "Smuggler admits Dawood links", Calcutta: SARWAR, Beena, 1992, "Afghani Opium eases pain The Telegraph, (13/1/1994). of reconstruction", Banglore: Deccan Herald (15/11/92) THEVAR,V., 1995, "Rise in the teenage Brigade", Bombay: SAYANI, S., 1994, "Bye Bhai", Bombay: Sunday Miday (3/7/94). Times of India (24/2/95). THEVAR,V., 1997, "Dawood is a prisoner of the ISI", Bombay: SHAH, A., 1988, "City of Gold", Bombay: Illustrated Weekly of India Times of Indian (14/1/97). (Jan 10) THEVAR, V., 1997, "Gangsters, Alive and Shooting", Bombay: Sunday Times of India (7/3/1999). SHAH, S., 1996, "Multiple local tax add sheen to gold smuggling", Bombay: Economic Times (15/June/96). TEAR,V., 1997, "Chota Rajan: Mumbai emerging drug lord", Bombay: Times of India (22/5/97). SHARAN, P.,1992,"Reprieve for Bhai Thakur:Dawood eliminates his TEAR,V., 1998, "Iqbal Mirchi: from greengrocer to globe trotting own hit men", Bombay :Indian Express (25/10/92). drug runner", Bombay: Times of India, (7/4/98). ______, 1993, "More killed at Dawood’s behest", Bombay :Indian Express (19/7/93). THOMAS, A., 1991, "Of Godfathers, Gang wars", Times of India, ______, 1993, "Cracks in Dawood Empire", (11/6/91). Bombay: Indian Express (9/5/93). Times of India, 1986, "Karim Lala’s brother shot (Karim Lala’s Kin SHARMA, R., 1999, "Drugs in the system kills Nigerian", Bombay: shot dead)", Bombay: Times of India, (11/12/86). Indian Express (7/7/99). Times of India, 1990, "Gawli Den’s busted", Bombay: Times of India, SHARMA, R., 1996, "Customs officials helped passengers smuggle (3/1/90). out gold", (25/oct/96).

FORMER NEXT 49 Chapter 1 - Bibliography Times of India, 1991, "Chota Rajan goes under ground", Bombay: Crime branch to probe Dawood gang’s slush money in stock Times of India (20/7/91). market. The Times of India 10th January 2001. Times of India, 1993, "Tanya Koli gunned down in Kalyan", Times of India, (19/9/1993). Bharat shah to be chargesheeted within a few days: M.N.Singh. Times of India, 1994, "Gawli aides prefer jail", Bombay: Mid-Day 4th March 2001 Times of India. (21/5/1994). Times of India, 1994, "Chota Rajan goes underground", Bombay : Bollywood in anxiety over future of films. The Asian Age Times of India (20/7/94). 10th January 2001. Times of India, 1995, "Interpol nab’s Dawood’s aide", Bombay: Times of India, (23/4/95) Corporatising Bollywood. Afternoon 11th January 2001. Times of India, 1997, "Dawood is a prisoner of the ISI", Bombay: Times of India, (14/1/97). Mixed reactions greet arrest of Big Daddy of Bollywood City Times of India, 1998, "Jobless, he turned to extortion but landed agog over Shah potboiler. The Indian Express 10th January 2001. behind bars", Times of India, (10/11/98). Times of India, 1998, "317 Extortion attempts out of 713 are by "Shah invested via unidentified channels". Mid-Day Taporis not Gangsters", Bombay: Times of India, (10/11/98). 11th January 2001. Times of India, 1998, "Two Management Students arrested in extortion case", Bombay: Times of India, (26/12/98). Broker-Underworld link being probed. The Statesman Times of India, 1999,"Hit men Trained in a Slipshod Manner", 13th April 2001. Bombay: Times of India (23/6/99) Times of India, "Woman held for smuggling mobile phone acces- Kahani Shah Khandan ki. Mid-Day 13th January 2001. sories", Bombay: Times of India, (5/8/99) Times of India, 1999, "AI employee held for smuggling gold", Police to seise all mafia-aided films. The Asian Age Bombay: Times of India, (7/8/99). 19th Dec. 2000. Page 1.

"Under trial Escapes From Vadodara Court Premises", Bollywood, business and the mafia. Frontline 16th March 2001. The Times of India, 29th Nov.2000. A Hot and Silly Tale. Outlook 19th March 2001 Times of India, 17th March 2001. Guards of honour. The Week 15th April 2001. The Time of India, 30th March 2001. Khomne Ranjit, "Probe Exposes mafia role in car thefts", UNI, 1992, "Gold Smuggling Unabated", New Delhi: Times of India, 14, 06, 2001. The Economic Times (11/5/1999).

VENKATESH, L., 1994, "Lower margins keep smuggling at bay", Bombay: Economic Times (3/April/94).

VIVIAN, S, 1998, "VDIS list come in handy for extortionist", Bombay: Indian Express (9/11/1998)

References on Bollywood Diamond markets to remain shut today. The Asian Age 10th January 2001.

FORMER

50 Chapter 1 - Bibliography Chapter 2 to take the first course of action.As a result of this policy,the sym- DRUG TRAFFICKING biotic relations between different actors with common and in- AND THE INFORMAL terrelated interests, form today a social, economic and institu- MARKET tional fabric in several countries, leading to systemic factors in- IN RIO DE JANEIRO side nations and in the international arena (van der Veen, 1998). Alba Zaluar But the money and the power that goes with it are not the only explanations for the expansion of the illegal drug economy. Political power at several levels, cultural processes that allowed the flowering of drug use, and the changes that followed the growth of this profitable economic activity,have been less studied.This chapter is concerned with the drug informal market activities and the political and cultural changes that accompanied it at the local level.Therefore, we will not discuss the intentions International Economic Background and consequences of drug law enforcement adopted by the Brazilian government, as what we have done elsewhere (Zaluar, No one doubts today that the illegal drugs market is one of 1998 and 2000). Although these policies form part of the back- the biggest economic sectors of the world economy, and that it ground of the actual dangers, posed by the illegal drug market, has become deeply embedded economically and socially in al- to the democratisation of Brazil. most every country in the world. Because economic sectors, especially illegal ones, interrelate, interweave formal and informal For the purposes of this chapter, it is sufficient to say that re- markets,and interconnect governmental agencies or institutions pression of the drug trade induces scarcity that increases the and drug businessmen, drug-related businesses permeate price and the impurity of the merchandise.Consequently,profits through many sectors of society.These sectors often function in multiply and many more people are induced to take the risks of the formal economy but draw part of their profits from drug-re- crime-business.Their activities are organised in such a way that lated activities.These activities are manifold in the sense that they allows them to avoid the risk of detection and prosecution, and include other criminal activities such as robbery and theft of to maintain or increase profits.This,undoubtedly,is the main rea- goods — trucks, cars, jewellery, domestic appliances etc — that son for the mounting corruption in state institutions: the Police, will be used as currencies for buying drugs and precursors (Zaluar, the Judiciary,the Legislative and governmental agencies.As yet, 1994; Geffray, 1996; UNDCP, 1997). Other activities involve net- little is known in Brazil about the supply of illicit drugs and the works already used for other illegal activities such as smuggling, organisational strength of trafficker networks, and more espe- governmental corruption, gun trafficking, etc. (Geffray, 1996; cially,the connections with the legal economy.Despite the grow- UNDCP, 1997). Examples of these networks are banks and trans- ing state powers to control it, little attention has been given to port companies which provide services to illegal businesses and the political and economic interests related to the drug economy another is the real estate market which serves as one of the main and how it is controlled. In particular, there is very little informa- mechanisms for money laundering. tion about the tightly knitted symbiotic and systemic interactions of the official and the underworld,the legal and the illegal, Robert Kendall,the Executive Secretary of Interpol,said once the formal and the informal sectors of the economy. Up to now, that it would be better for police forces not to be committed to little is known on this issue in Brazil. Nevertheless, many studies hunting drug consumers or small dealers,and instead allot their now point to the effects of other regulating functions of the po- resources,which are always insufficient,to the repression of traf- lice and other state agencies related to drug trafficking and drug fickers and launderers. Unfortunately, the legislation of various use or abuse, that is, problems involving issues of public health countries (including Brazil up to now and the USA) forces them and public order.

NEXT 51 Chapter 2 The international picture is rather gloomy. Over the last derstanding (Habermas,1991).This ethics surpasses the one ex- decade worldwide production of illicit drugs has increased dra- isting in civil law or in the conception of interpersonal contracts matically. Opium and marijuana production has roughly dou- that bind private domains,and also exists to a certain extent,in bled,while coca production has tripled and new synthetic drugs organised crime (3).The new ideas on the compromises each one have been developed and in high demand in some countries. must make with others in the public sphere (Ricoeur,1990) have Brazil has become not only a channel for cocaine transportation not been entirely absorbed in social practices.As a result,gam- towards other countries but also a consumer centre for this drug. bling,drug use and pleasure-seeking are the main objectives of I suggested before (Zaluar, 1994) that the underlying dynamics life for many sectors of population,especially for the youth.This of the war on drugs,explain the predominant place that the drug makes the businesses that exploit their illegal consumption issue has attained in domestic and international policies of many highly profitable, precisely because they are illegal. (1) All over the world,the existence of laws that pro- states. And how this situation has contributed to place Brazil in hibit, and the strong moral censorship that is im- the cocaine route to Europe and the USA and open a widespread Another element in this complex situation is the revolution in posed on such activities, compel practices and or- market for this drug. consumption patterns in Brazilian society.More consumer goods, ganisational forms that are both underground and more styles of consumption and more buying spree at shopping violent in their means of negotiation (threats, in- One thing is certain.Today, the demonstration of violence in centres have been the main changes in these patterns. Cultural timidation, blackmail, extortion) or in conflict resolution (aggressions, murders, terrorism) to react ac- the world cannot exclude the local impact of transnational or- values have also changed: more individualistic and modern val- cordingly to either their commercial or private dis- ganised crime, that is, globalised crime that has sui generis eco- ues became widespread in Brazilian society during the seventies putes. nomic,political and cultural characteristics.In it,those who are in and the eighties, such as the well-acclaimed media commenda- (2) Style is a concept used for substituting culture strategic positions in the large network of transnational connection "always seeking the best for yourself" (tirar vantagem de tudo), and subculture which have theoretical conse- tions may profit quickly and easily,as a result of little or lack of in- "making easy money" (fazer dinheiro fácil). Drug traffic is part of quences and presuppositions which are inapplicable in such times of very rapid changes and uses of stitutional limits,while using violent ways of conflict adjustments this new social,economic and political environment since it is an (1) social identities and practices.Used first to designate .This may be considered as the illegal sector of the production individualistic, entrepreneurial activity which is the best organ- what was called "youth culture", style then became and distribution of goods and services which form part of what ised of all underground and illegal activities. the most suitable term to describe the swift and is called "mass consumption of style" (2). transitory novelties in fashion of music,clothing,art, Among the illegal drugs, cocaine is today associated every- language and other juvenile behaviour that could no longer be exclusively interpreted on the holistic where with a style that puts great value in money, power, vio- perspective of religion or of class culture, although Theoretical Perspective lence and consumption of goods with a reputed trademark. not entirely disconnected from them. Because of the very high prices of the drug,which is more costly (3) Mafiosi contracts damage third parties and, al- There has been intense debate over the character of post- than gold in several places (4), its trade has become a source of though they may avoid conflicts, are based on the war society — be it called post modern, post industrial, high huge and quick profits, as well as of greater violence. In this participants' instrumental interests (Habermas, 1991).The relationships of personal loyalty and re- modernity,etc.— that went beyond the mere discussion of the case, the profits are not engendered by productivity or greater ciprocity are neither the outcome of a personal free proper terms to denote it. However, there has also been a cer- use of labour, but by the illegality of the enterprise itself act,but are forced upon mainly by the threat or use tain agreement that this society has been subjected to an ac- (Salama,1993).The demand that guarantees high profits,is cre- of physical violence or even by terror (Caillé, 1996). celerated process of social, economic, political and cultural ated by changes in lifestyle associated with individual con- Demonstrations of the chief’s generosity and mag- transformations, the central points of which would be social sumption, which is characterised by style consumption (in- nanimity exist,but are dependent on the whims and caprices of his personal power, leaving little space fragmentation and the increasing importance granted to cluding the use of illegal drugs) and which is more expensive for other views to be considered.The mixture of fear, leisure and consumption activities as means of ascertaining than post-war family consumption due to the secure and com- respect and affection that surround him does not and defining new social identities.On the level of social control, fortable domestic patterns of middle class families (Sassen, nullify the despotic trait of his power. such transformations mean that conventional moral restraint, 1991). Such changes in consumer habits have been accompa- (4) In New York the same pattern is found in the traffic which up to a certain point exists without the law, has weak- nied by new conceptions about work and suffering. of heroine in that,from the sixties onwards,trafficking was established in the black and Puerto Rican neigh- ened and has not been replaced by new post-conventional Furthermore, these changes, which have been credited as one bourhoods,and the pattern continues in the more re- ethics based on personal freedom as well as mutuality, respect of the effects of the globalisation process, are said to have cent traffic of cocaine and crack (Sullivan,1992). for the rights of others,or the use of dialogue to arrive at an un- favoured the impressive and verified increase in certain crimes

FORMER NEXT 52 Chapter 2 "against property" — thefts and muggings — as well as bilises so many young favelados will be described in their inter- "against life" — aggressions and homicides (UNDCP, 1997). connections at the cultural, political and economic planes. However, the local and micro mechanism by which this has come about is yet to be properly studied. The first part concerns the historical background of the economic,social and political changes that compound the scenario Since inequality remains at the social, economic and institu- in which violence and drug traffic thrive, particularly those that tional levels, these new globalising forms of economic activities lead to a change in the masculine identity or the warrior ethos. configure a perverse social and economic integration for those The data comes from an ethnographical fieldwork done in a gov- who are part of what is called exclusion.The question yet to be ernmental housing estate, as well as from another on-going re- properly discussed is how the effects of poverty and accelerated search project that compares styles of drug use and trafficking in urbanisation or immigration are linked with institutional mech- three different districts (Copacabana,Madureira and Tijuca) of Rio anisms and the presence of networks (5) and fluxes of a more or de Janeiro. One in the richest zone, another in a predominantly (5) The concept of the network is used in two main less organised crime (Reuter,1986).Although poverty and accel- middle-class area and the last one in a predominantly poor sec- ways in studies concerning drug traffic nowadays.First, erated urbanisation are clearly connected with the results and tion of the city. In the second part I will interpret the data from it is anchored at concepts of territoriality and hierar- causes of exclusion, organised crime (6) crosses all social classes other fieldworks that focussed on the changes in community af- chy with which Geography has envisaged international, national and regional metropolises as well as and has bonds with organised legal business (Schiray; 1994, fairs and local politics. other cities in order to study the flux of information Geffray;1996).Therefore,it does not survive without institutional and products that pass from one to the others through support from state agencies delegated to defend the law.The re- knots and strategic points of interconnections from lated themes of violence, criminality and insecurity will not be Economic and Social Scenario which some of them hierarchically exert over the oth- properly understood if they are not connected with such di- ers.Second,closer to the anthropological conception of Drug Trafficking in Shantytowns of a social network,it is used to study and understand mensions.Assuming that many poor young men have been in a the illegal activities that have the character of a con- state of vulnerability as a consequence of crisis within families, The existence of a new form of informal/illegal market,tightly tinuous business that flows by interpersonal relation- estrangement between adults and youths, an inefficient school intertwined with criminal activities, is the main element that ships based on secrecy and trust always under proof, system and lack of professional training added to insufficient helps to understand what is going on in Brazilian cities today. in other words, on knowledge and vigilance people work posts,I will present arguments that further the idea of "per- Informal markets have always existed in them,and have been an have of each other as well as tacit arrangements and rules between them.In this second meaning,it applies verse integration" (Castels & Mollenkopf, 1992). important source of income for the poor with little qualification notably to the lower levels of the drug traffic that have for work or little schooling.These informal markets have devel- an intricate and a hardly controlled decentralised web, oped personal networks and complicated rules for the occupa- contrary to what happens with the wholesalers and fi- Drug Trafficking in Rio de Janeiro tion of the main streets in the major urban centres of the coun- nanciers of the traffic,who tend to create centralisa- try.Yet,for the past decades,they have been joined by street vention and hierarchy in Cartels e Mafia (UNDCP,1997). (6)The concept of organised crime is entangled with This chapter will focus on the changes that took place in the dors who sell several types of goods which have been stolen the concept of Mafia and has been the object of an informal market in Rio de Janeiro due to the presence of drug from trucks, residences and pedestrians, or which have been unfinished debate which started during the last cen- traffickers in the city,especially in shanty-towns (favelas) and how smuggled in from other countries. Informal trade, which tradi- tury: the former referring to its organised or disor- this contributed to a process of criminalisation of the informal tionally has been a way out of unemployment and a morally val- ganised character (Reuter,1986),and the latter point- sector,a way of relativising poverty and exclusion as causes of vi- ued alternative for subaltern work,especially if conducted in the ing to its condition of crime,work or enterprise.In any case,there is no doubt that one is dealing with a set olent drug trafficking.I will discuss as well the paradoxes and am- streets of the city, had thus become, on another level, tied to or- of activities spread in networks that have compo- biguities of the old and new political cultures,conceived as mod- ganised crime, that is to say dangerous and morally suspicious nents of economic endeavour,that is,it needs repet- els and practices of the political,bearing on the social and the re- undertakings.This becomes even clearer when one discovers its itive activities, (though without the discipline, regu- ligious, which seem to have had unintended consequences. A connections with gold selling shops, car repair shops, wrecked larity and rights of regular work), a goal of which is fluid, easily contaminated and unstable culture of fear has had cars lots, antique dealers, etc., some of which have become col- profit (easier and higher the better, seen at the wholesalers and intermediaries network),using vari- important consequences in so far as an imaginary fear took form lecting points for stolen goods. It has been discovered recently able methods and currencies for exchanges typical in different social classes and affected their inter-relationships. that even some legal truck transport businesses are part of the of secret or underground relationships. The limitations, dangers and ethos of this new activity that mo- network for truck robbery. However, there has been little sys-

FORMER NEXT 53 Chapter 2 tematic investigation of these networks so far, although police- pay one kilo to the "matuto" or intermediary who left it on con- men have sometimes harshly repressed the last in the line:those signment.Of these 500% of profit,partly obtained from the mix- who sell stolen goods or drugs in the streets. ture of cocaine with other cheaper substances, half of it goes to the "man in the front" or "trafficker", 30% to the "manager", who Illegal drug trafficking is part of the formal and the informal does the accounts, and various percentages to the "vapor", who economy, as it employs a few and allow many to earn money in- remains at the trading point (Zaluar,1994).The "vapor" is the one formally as street sellers, and permits a well-placed few to earn who distributes the small amounts of cocaine ("papelotes") to the lots of money from laundering and diverse drug related en- "aviões",the very young dealers who finally take the dope to the trepreneurial activity.Even at the most extreme point of this vast customers.The last ones are the more commonly arrested and network — the "boca de fumo" at a shantytown — the language prosecuted,and who often receive "cargas" to sell,for which they employed is one of business: "profits", "accountancy books", "in- become entirely responsible.They may sell them after "malhá- puts and outputs","bookkeepers","owner","manager".The drug las", that is, after increasing their weight with cheap substances traffic gang is similar to the Mafia for there is a cult of violence,of in order to raise their profits; they may consume most of them, conspicuous consumption,and of exploitation of the weaker.But what makes them prone to be killed by the trafficker. Death unlike the Italian Mafia it is not based on personal dependence penalty is the sentence for those who repeatedly do not pay him and loyalty, even less on family ties. It is not a family business; it or who excessively crumble the merchandise. has no big chief, it works in networks, although not always horizontal.There is a great inequality inside it, in terms of power re- Amongst the boys — aviões —, the main reason for pride is lations and division of profits and "gains".In other words it is ver- the fact that they are part of the crew,use guns,join in defying ini- tical: the trafficker or owner, the managers ("gerentes") who con- tiatives in robbing and looting,become famous for this,and may, trol the fixed selling place, the vapours and the street sellers (in- some day, if they show enough "disposition", ascend in the hier- side the shanty town or in the asphalt or "pista"),who are always archy of crime (Zaluar,1994;Lins,1997).Thus,the strategies for re- changing positions.This verticality is expressed symbolically in cruiting youngsters, according to the rational calculation of how terms of power from the head: many permanent dealers (from 10 to 30) the trading point needs, are based as much on the prospect of earning "easy money", as "Weak head" (cabeça fraca) versus "strong man" on the fascination exerted on them by this power and fame. "Guided by remote control" (Teleguiado) versus "chief commander" Some of the more business-like traffickers have established "Induced by others" versus "decided for oneself" legal establishments,such as trucks,taxis,bars,bakery stores,gas stations and so on. But most lose their money quickly and peri- The qualities listed on the left belong to the employed (book- odically paying corrupt policemen,lawyers,and their own lavish keepers, "vapours" — sellers who may stay in one place or move consumption.When they are short of money or want to increase rapidly from one place to the other depending on arrangements the business or their share in it,they organise robberies,car thefts with the police) and many "little aeroplanes" (go-between sellers) and muggings — calling youngsters,considered tough and will- (Zaluar,1988).They get a variable salary or a small percentage on ing to comply with their rules,to come with them,even if they are the sales or just a small portion,for their own consumption,of the not part of the permanent drug trafficking gang. drug they are able to sell elsewhere.Even when the payments are monetary, they may get back to the trafficker for most of them By the end of the seventies,when the drug trade had become are heavy users or "viciados". On the right is the image of the a synonym for warfare, disagreements and conflicts had to be owner (the trafficker) and his managers (usually three), the only solved by violence,usually by gunfire,since they could not appeal ones who have lots of guns and profit in the business,and some- to the justice system.They affirmed then that in order "to keep hold times making a lot of money, especially the owner. According to of a cocaine outlet,you could not lower your guard for a minute".A the interviews, with the sale of only 200 grams of cocaine they "front man",that is,the owner or trafficker who is in charge of the

FORMER NEXT 54 Chapter 2 outlet,is obliged to keep all his underlings in line,to keep his eyes gets them from the allied shanty towns.These commands con- open, to make sure his competitors are not taking too big a slice ciliate thus the features of a geographically defined network, of the business by selling more or better goods or acquiring more which includes central or diffusion points, with the anthropo- fire power.He has to do right by his supplier,who is no longer just logical which focuses on horizontal reciprocity, working in both a man coming around in a truck. Otherwise, he gets ripped off, directions: positive and negative. For, even though guns and loses his spot,or is simply wiped out by competitors from both in- drugs are quickly lent to the allied dealing crews, the violent reside and outside his gang.To carry a gun at all times, to kill or be ciprocity of private vengeance is imperative in the absence of a killed, and to keep constant surveillance over the gang's power negotiable juridical form of conflict resolution. Because of such are simply everyday concerns for him.Violence is required for the exchanges, adolescents die in wars for the control of trading leader of a drug gang to prevail.Despite this,many inexperienced points. Even so, it should not be forgotten that trafficking in Rio young men get into warfare because of rivalry over a woman, a is sometimes really disentangled for there are many crews and simple childhood strife or any act considered as a provocation, individuals striving for power and positions inside the trade. that is, any motive that menace the status or masculine pride of youngsters trying to assert their virility — the "Sujeito Homem" Outside the shantytown, the selling activities today involve (Subject Man),as they say (Alvito,1996; Lins,1997). many characters that have always worked in the streets:hookers, doormen, taxi drivers, small shopkeepers, bar tenders, and the Dope hustling is thus cited by disillusioned pushers as a place "camelôs",that is,the street vendors who have been the main fig- of distrust and animosity, where there is no mutual respect ex- ures of the informal market. In the districts studied, they buy cept for the other man's gun.It is a sexually charged,virile world. dope at the shanty towns ("favelas"),the most dangerous places, All the men carry guns, and to carry a gun is to "fucking strut" or in order to sell it dearer (two, even three times more expensive) to "have your iron in your belt".To show off your weapon,or "to pull at the regular streets of the city ("asfalto").Thus, they have com- your gun out", is a common habit of such urban outlaws, yet one bined their legal selling activities inside the commercial centres which can often prove fatal. Instead of the verb to rob, they say of those districts with drug dealing. Nevertheless, they should "to mount" their victims, used both for mugging people in the perform this activity only with the permission of the trafficker streets and for breaking and entering houses.To kill somebody is from the nearest shanty town,especially in the streets closest to to "lay them down".The prime audiences for such displays are ap- it.If not, they will be killed.This is especially clear in Copacabana parently the women they are trying to impress with their power and Tijuca, districts where selling in the "pista" or asphalt has and the money in their pockets.Yet these are the first men to be been more frequent than in Madureira, where everyone goes to grabbed in police raids. In spite of this notorious fact, the young the nearest "boca de fumo" inside one of the many "favelas" in the outlaws never tire of bragging that the "chicks" go for men who place.The main reason for this is the lower priced (half the price carry guns, because they feel more protected. at the "pista") and purer drug found inside shantytowns, into which only those who are acquainted with the traffickers dare to There is another crucial motive for constant warfare among enter.Even so,those who choose to deal directly with them must dealers. Drug outlets in shanty towns are divided in two "organ- have the nerves to face the dangers of gun firing and a quick ex- isations" or networks:Comando Vermelho or Terceiro Comando. ecution in case of an unpaid debt (a week's delay) or even on a These two opposite webs encompass most of the shantytowns mere suspicion of betrayal. in Rio de Janeiro, which are classified either as C V or T C, the ini- tials being printed all over their walls.When a friendly "quadrilha" (criminal crew) in one shanty town needs either drugs or guns, Traffickers and Neighbours the others localised elsewhere supply them when possible. Therefore, even if not co-ordinated entirely as a Mafia hierarchy, In some of the more traditional shanty towns, such as the drug trade in Rio has a very efficient horizontal arrangement by favela of Serrinha in Madureira,it was observed that a clear sep- which a shanty town that runs out of drugs or guns immediately aration exists between drug dealers and their neighbours. In

FORMER NEXT 55 Chapter 2 those localities, people suggest that they impose a distance the hatred they feel of the dependence they acquired from with regard to traffickers with such phrases as "they respect us", sniffing cocaine, the most common heavy drug used among "we do not have anything to do with them".Those are the ones them. who do not want to make agreements with traffickers or let them intimidate local inhabitants who do not allow them to sell This present opposition to traffickers may be explained by the drugs at their gates or to show guns to small children. But this recent change in the hierarchy of Comando Vermelho: the elder is not the case for all neighbours or for all communities. At leaders,mostly in prison,were ousted by younger traffickers who Serrinha only the older inhabitants, who also follow afro- were more desegregated among themselves and had less con- Brazilian religions and support the old School of Samba tend to nections with the shantytown dwellers.Because of this,violence maintain this attitude, whereas newcomers, who belong to against these new younger groups increased and local traffick- Pentecostal churches and prefer funk music, tend to make ers lost respect from them.Most of these young dealers inspired agreements or alliances with the dealers.They consider them- only fear or terror amongst neighbours. The elder leaders de- selves more modern and realistic, justifying their attitude by cided to form a new organisation, based on the same principles saying that it is impossible to do anything without their con- of reciprocity,called "Friends of friends",which is in fact the prin- sent or help. ciple of open networks, always trying to include more and more people. Drug traffic has developed divisions between shanty towns so close to each other that their internal streets and construc- Anyway, ambivalence has always been expressed linguisti- tions merge. Although neighbours still recognise the areas by cally in terms employed by some of those youngsters and their their initial names,now they are officially considered as one com- neighbours to denote criminal actions. "Vice" (vício), "delay" plex.In one of these complexes,o "Alemão",after the death of the (atraso),"stop" (parada),"devil condominium" are words that ex- leader that unified several "favelas",there was not only a state of press the opposite of morally valued work (Zaluar,1994).They are war between their respective gangs linked to different traffick- applied to explain why someone is stuck or trapped in a ers;neighbours were prohibited to trespass the artificial borders vengeance circle,in blood feuds as well as in police persecution. between them.Many adolescents have been killed just because "Revolt" is the positive term used to denote those who will not they passed from one area to the other,also due to the existence accept low wages and hard work,based on a simple conception of the two biggest networks of this crime-business. of social justice and male pride that defies economic exploitation.But injustice can also be another bloodthirsty bandit or cor- Anyway, for some of the youngsters who hang about the rupt and violent policemen.The political place occupied by traf- streets of the favelas and the districts, traffickers and their or- fickers is not,then,clear cut.They may be praised for the respect ganisations are well valued.Their symbols — TCK trade marks they have for neighbours or for the many social activities they pa- for the Terceiro Comando or Nike for Comando Vermelho — are tronise inside the shantytowns. Contrariwise, they may be used as ways of identifying themselves with one or the other. loathed because of the way they seduce or order girls to have Adolescents say they belong to one of them as if they were soc- sexual relations with them, as well as the continuous threat that cer team supporters.They also absorb the warrior ethos with all their guns represent in any case of conflict or suspicion of be- its consequences by saying they have enemies everywhere and trayal involving traffickers, common (unarmed) inhabitants and need guns. Finally, they show simultaneously a deep loathing the police. for policemen and a fear of being considered delators (or X9). This possibility is a great risk (of being killed) and an enormous Some favelas are considered safer than others,from the point shame (of losing respect from the mates).At the same time they of view of freedom in trading drugs.Mangueira,near the district talk about the hatred they have of dealers who have killed of Tijuca,is one of the safest,because policemen seldom go there, friends, close relatives or innocent neighbours. Some of the although it is known as one of the main drug distribution centres heavy users, who have connections with dealers, also verbalise and one with a strongly armed mob. Inside it, the main street

FORMER NEXT 56 Chapter 2 called "Buraco Quente", is a series of bars and small shops system for its inefficiency, corruption and impunity that make ("biroscas"), where dealers can negociate calmly.Another case in their living worse inside the poor neighbourhoods.Thus, if the point is the favela of Borel which is close to a main shopping cen- first type of crime is obviously linked to the virile ethos,of which tre of this district.From time to time,police invasions may disrupt bandits are the main holders, the second must be understood this apparent tranquillity, betrayed by the frequent confronta- within the intricate web it has with the criminal justice,as nowa- tions amongst the dealers themselves. days affected by drug traffic and other forms of business or organised crime. Traffickers have also succeeded in penetrating several voluntary and public organisations, such as the community dust- As institutions,the Police and the Judiciary,especially the for- men who work for the official company that takes the garbage mer, have their almost unanimous negative evaluation. When away — Comlurb. In several favelas which were visited there someone assesses them positively, it is most certainly referring were more than five people linked with the drug dealers who to a specific person, such as a policeman they used to know or a were on the payroll of Comlurb. Drivers and watchmen of the judge that passed a just decision.Prison and police precincts are company also belong to the drug gang.Even those who are not equated with "factories of bandits" or "schools of banditism".The part of the gangs are compelled to carry drugs or guns inside Justice system as a whole is seen as "propelled by money", as the Comlurb trucks from one place of the city to another, with- most of the country’s organisations nowadays. Policemen have out arousing suspicion.The same happens with drivers of am- the power of beginning an inquiry by registering the "auto da bulances on service for public hospitals,who have been forced prisão em flagrante" (flagrant imprisonment document) or any to do the same.Those who do not comply are killed. other proofs necessary to start a judicial process.They also maintain the secular practice against the existing institutional norms and the constitutional rights of Brazilian citizens,of torturing pris- Drug Trafficking, Morality oners, mainly poor and black people, in order to extract confes- and the Institutions sions from them about their supposed criminal acts. Policemen have thus acquired great power that makes them all the more Bandits and workers share the same moral view of crime.This prone to corruption. view however, is dissociated from the Brazilian Penal Code that sometimes has a different ranking and evaluation of the dangers Impunity is another consequence of their weak professional of crimes endorsed by the poor.For the workers as well as for the ethos and precarious technical training as investigators. Many bandits, the most odious crime is rape that deserves in Brazilian petty criminals and bandits never get caught and claim this as a Penal Code a small prison sentence. Next appears murder, espe- stimulus to repeat delinquent acts. And since money may guar- cially if the victim is "innocent". All atrocities committed against antee impunity, either because a policeman will not register the old people, children and pregnant women may be the focus of act and thus start an inquiry, or because well-paid lawyers know severe condemnation (Zaluar,1994).Nevertheless,there is a clear how to avoid judicial processes or condemnations once those separation between crimes committed out of a strong emotional have been set, joining drug traffic gangs becomes even more at- reaction and those motivated by insensitive calculations.The for- tractive (Zaluar,1998).Nevertheless,the whims and wishes of the mer happens at "the heat of the moment", since "a man cannot traffickers may be decisive in the outcome of a youngster’s career. take it" or "a man must always strike back".This applies equally to One of the many stories heard by the researchers told how a 20- small provocations that challenge their masculine pride or to se- year-old man was arrested because the trafficker did not like him. rious infidelities and treasons that bring shame and peril to their He was a go-between for the owner of a bar situated just at the families and neighbourhoods.The latter imply some kind of com- fringe of the shanty-town, who, in his turn, worked as one of the putation of gains and losses,as well as a mere habit or what they managers for the local and powerful trafficker who did not like the call "vice".This is the one they most talk about, either trying to young man. He was told to carry a great quantity of drug to an- justify for the external public or criticising the Brazilian justice other faraway shanty town (Mangueira). It was a set up.The traf-

FORMER NEXT 57 Chapter 2 ficker had warned the Police and the young man was caught, ar- Therefore, corruption and the institutional policy predominantly rested and incriminated.He has no money to pay the lawyer and based on repressive tactics, especially with regard to metropoli- the trafficker will not help him, as it is usual for the vapours and tan poor youths, have added more negative effects to their al- managers.He is due to be sentenced to prison. ready hard life (Zaluar,1994; Lins,1997).

Since the income of drug business is highly concentrated at Still, in their interviews, youngsters mentioned that the the top of its hierarchy, and because of the absence of market "quadrilhas" (criminal crews) provided more security for their regulations,adjusted prices,minimum wages,and work rights for members,since they assure juridical assistance that increases the the "soldiers" and "peons", small dealers in Brazilian shanty chance of not being sentenced,the higher the youngster is in the towns, despite their military apparatus, do in fact help those organised crime hierarchy.This is an element in the calculation of higher up in the hierarchy or those who produce and trade tons the pros and cons in joining a gang. Since money can buy de- of the illicit drugs, in concentrating income and accumulating fence, and guns offer the protection that emerges from fear, it is capital.Lawyers,corrupt policemen,traders of stolen goods,and rational to practice more and more crimes in order to always so on and so forth, should also be included in the list of those have money, guns, and the respect and protection of the gang. who are making plenty of money.What these young men imag- Actually, their preference for armed robbery is explained by the ine as absolute independence may be just a death trap, both for fact that they can silence possible witnesses by terror,force fear- them and those around them (Zaluar, 1994).Very few of those ful respect on accomplices and offer the gun as a "treat" to the poor youths manage to establish themselves in the business,for policemen, and multiple ways of escaping arrest and making they die very young or go to prison,but they all contribute to the condemnation more difficult. enormous enrichment of those characters who are still in the dark side of the criminal records,the shadow rate or the black ci- In real life this calculation may prove ineffective in so far as it pher.Those types never get included in the official data. As yet, does not completely eliminate the likelihood that a poor or less little is known about them in Brazil: who they are, how they live, important bandit may go through the experience of being beaten how they make contacts in the underworld of crime, how they up,tortured or extorted for a sum of money they cannot provide. achieve to climb the social ladder. Their guns and the riches they have just stolen may be taken away from them, and yet, they may still be taken into jail, if policemen With high profits,it is easy for the ones well-placed in the net- prefer to show their readiness to render a service to the corrup- works to corrupt policemen.Since there are no laws to protect in- tion game and hence increase their bets.They could also be ac- terests and properties in this sector of the economy, disputes cused at the police precinct of crimes they did not commit as a tend to be settled by violent means,even if they are not with the way of clarifying crimes that must be quickly solved for their su- same intensity as what one finds in certain Brazilian cities.It is nec- periors.There are work pressures and orientations inside the in- essary therefore to understand how bribing eased the way for stitution besides the secular practices of violence and corruption. guns and illegal drugs to arrive at shanty towns and poor districts At least two cases of "revolt", that is, the decision to take up guns in Rio de Janeiro without noise or uproar.Conversely,stolen goods and follow criminal careers,were due to these experiences at the — automobiles,trucks,jewellery,domestic appliances — robbed hands of policemen,which were presented as unbearable by hu- from their owners in highways,roads,streets or residences inside man beings.In general,their assertions invoke the demoralisation the state of Rio de Janeiro and used in non-monetary exchanges of the Police as an important factor that pushes them to crime or for illegal drugs, easily reach their final destination. To reach that causes them to calculate whether crime is worth it or not. Paraguay or Bolivia, these stolen goods go through several Brazilian states and municipalities:the interior of the states of São The situation would be even more serious if criminal activities Paulo, Mato Grosso and Rondonia (Geffray, 1996).This "style" of did not have their own dynamics that could restrain their actions. trafficking is in contrast to the noisy and murderous one at the A case in point are power relationships and the division of labour selling points inside the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. that are sometimes very exploitative. As I said before, the lion’s

FORMER NEXT 58 Chapter 2 share goes to the "owner" of the "boca de fumo" (selling place),also Second, the brutal rules that dictate relations inside the called "the trafficker". He gets almost all the profit, whereas his criminal gang or within the more inclusive "mundo do crime" "managers" and "vapores" (vapours) only get different percentages (world of crime), may deter some of the youngsters from join- on the sales.Thus, if someone wants to become rich quickly, indi- ing it, even when they strongly feel the attractions of carrying vidual initiative is the most suitable line of action.But it may result a gun, being part of the mob and being feared. Others choose in the loss of the gang’s protection,which in turn may result in po- to quit, even if this is a dangerous operation.Their success de- lice persecution outside the area the gang controls.This could also pends on several circumstances,such as being able to move to hinder the objective of climbing quickly in the gang’s hierarchy in another district, city or state as a means of disentangling from order to gain more from the drug business.Independent and petty the former partners.The only ones who never talk about quit- criminals are the ones most targeted by policemen since they do ting are those who are getting richer and richer from the illegal not pay the regular bribe that allows business to take place with- business: the traffickers and their managers. But there are sto- out any disturbance. Nevertheless, they also make their decisions ries about the latter that tell of treason from associates, wives about "going into the movement" on the assumption that police- and lawyers; of persecution from policemen who get envious men have poor ideas about who is a criminal, and may not differ- of their wealth; of losses provoked by their own vices and lav- entiate between delinquents and workers since they all look the ish consumption that may take them out of business or cause same. them to simply wear out (becoming a "caido").

I started by saying that workers and bandits alike have a moral view of crime that relates it to a necessary punishment. Fear, Images of Justice Nevertheless,the dynamics of interactions I described transform and Local Politics this view in favour of a cynical, instrumental and manipulative version of the law on the part of those who have been sued. In the current historical context,revolt in the face of injustice Luck,manipulation of judicial actors and the due process of law, and hypocrisy is lost in acts of violence beyond comprehension occasional pressures and bribes before, during and after the ju- and are increasingly attributed to an absolute evil.This is clearer dicial process, regular corruption of policemen, intimidation of in the case of those who join Pentecostal churches,especially The possible witnesses by the use of guns, terror exerted on neigh- Universal Church of the Reign of God. For many Brazilians, mid- bours, and a very lucrative business offer incentives and justifi- dle or working class, hatred is devoted to twisted criminals who cations for the crimes committed,even the most discursively re- they believe stop at nothing with their destructive action.Their proached. freedom or even their human rights are considered abusive, not legitimate, and the complaint is that the victims’ rights are not Yet,there are deterrents to criminal action.Surprisingly,they championed in the same way. Rights of bandits became a syn- are not from the repressive action of policemen,which,they un- onym for human rights.They also express this concern in terms derstand, is manipulated, but from the poor neighbours’ own of modern times, in which God no longer exists, moral parame- organisations and values.First, family obligations and compro- ters have weakened, and institutional restraints are unjust, inef- mises may bring a feeling of "vergonha" (shame). Some youths ficient, on nonexistent. and adults shudder at the possibility that their parents,specially their mothers, or their children and other relatives may know Fear is not only a product of people's imagination or their about their crimes and feel ashamed because of them. passive reception of media messages. It is, to a certain extent, a "Vergonha" is a moral issue, although not associated with the realistic fear. Data on violent crimes in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo classical Iberian notions of shame and honour that are linked to and many other Brazilian cities justify this posture of the urban the purity of women. "Vergonha" in this case is connected to a population. All violent crimes have had increasing rates, mainly loss of dignity and family pride. homicides, the rate of which tripled in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro,between 1982 and 1990 (from 23 to 63,03 mur-

FORMER NEXT 59 Chapter 2 ders per 100 000 inhabitants).This astonishing increase in almost supported by rapid inflation. Brazil had a varied and modern a decade took place mainly in the poor periphery of Rio and not economy, but its political and juridical traditions and institutions in the municipality of Rio. Moreover, the participation of young- had not evolved.Not only did it have one of the worst income dis- sters ("minors") was three times greater in 1985 than in 1982 tribution in the world, but there were also great inequalities in (Campos,1988).The official data from the Ministry of Health also terms of access to Justice or distributive justice (Zaluar,1994).The showed that,in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro,the number of latter manifests itself when people are systematically excluded deaths from "external causes" was the third highest, just near from services, benefits and guarantees which are considered as cancer tumors,both of which were almost three times lower than social rights of citizenship ensured by the State. It is seen when deaths from circulatory diseases.However,while women,mostly people do not have human or civil rights, that is, the rights con- those more than sixty years old,were equally victims of these dis- tained in national constitutions or in the Universal Declaration of eases (48,7%), men, mostly from 15 to 39 years old (84%), were Human Rights.It also appears when people do not or can not crit- the victims of violent deaths.In Brazil,4 men die per each woman icise the laws or the workings of Justice.There is an undeniable in average, but between 15 and 29 years old 8 men die per each fact in many Brazilian cities today, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, woman and, in some poorer municipalities of the Metropolitan that drug traffic is destroying poor working families and that the Region of Rio de Janeiro, this rate reaches the amazing figure of warfare it unleashes is taking the lives of thousands of young 15 men per each woman.From 1987 onwards,murders exceeded people, especially those of colour. For these social groups, this traffic accidents and nowadays are 30% higher. "way out" of poverty or "inclusion" in the economic system has been self-destructive. The social and economic context of inflation, recession and increased poverty, only add problems to make matters worse. Social movements in Rio, mainly in poor areas, had then to This partly explains the political apathy that seemed to have face a dramatic and very dangerous situation of recurring deaths seised the population in Rio de Janeiro's poor neighbourhoods. as well as of increasing rates of larceny and robbery,on one hand, From the end of the seventies onwards, gun possession has cre- and corruption on the other.As a result,all over the city explana- ated, for those youngsters involved in the drug traffic war, an tions abound,covering the whole ideological spectrum.It is pos- armed power that has shaken the foundations of any authority. sible, however, to simplify the variety of statements on the sub- Local politicians, businessmen and policemen became the tar- ject, organising them into two main lines of thought which are gets of aggressive behaviour.Their schoolteachers as well as lo- sometimes overlapping. One is the growing demands for order, cal leaders lost their authority vis-à-vis the youths that have the based on the diagnostics of an insuperable social conflict and the power of money and guns (Guimarães, 1992; Paiva, 1992; Zaluar, institutional failure to deal with this matter. A new conservative 1985, 1988, 1993, 1994). It is a fact that more and more students trend advising more efficient and tough police practices as well carry guns to school and that children sometimes cannot go to as the election of right-wing politicians who defend death school because of gun battles or rivalries between the neigh- penalty(7) and strong governments are found in all social classes bourhoods where the schools are.Even the experienced and po- (Zaluar, 1991, 1992, 1993; Caldeira, 1992; Vargas, 1993).The other (7) The Catholic Church has been the main social litically concerned adults who work in their countless neigh- is the belief that,because of the deterioration of workers' life con- and political force that contends and condemns bourhood organisations, such as schools of samba, dwellers' as- ditions,low salaries,high rates of inflation,increasing misery and death penalty which has gained most of the public opinion support lately.Thanks to this firm opposi- sociations, soccer teams (Zaluar, 1985), are almost powerless. unemployment,disorder is good.Along the same line of thought, tion, also followed by the Evangelical Churches, and taking the left road,are those who think that a civil war is in- death penalty has not been implemented in the On the political plane, other consequences must be consid- evitable and revolution is approaching. country. The main argument is based on human ered.During the eighties,the country had progressively recovered rights, especially the right to life prisoners have. A democratic practices.This followed a period of economic devel- The existing dwellers’associations,since the middle eighties, more practical argument affirms that more poor and blacks or mestizos would be punished in this way, opment during the military regime (1964-1984), when increased has also to remain independent from the drug dealers' gangs, following the bias of the institutions in charge of law wealth had never been distributed. Instead of economic growth, which introduced an unexpected challenge arising from the and order in the country. there had been a scenario of economic, moral and political crisis growing rates of violent criminality and the armed power of or-

FORMER NEXT 60 Chapter 2 ganised crime. Most of these involving the young drug dealers communitarian leaders and ordinary dwellers sometimes ended who lived and did business in shanty-towns and low-income in the expulsion or even the death of the latter. On the other housing estates.This armed power went beyond the restricted hand they had already been playing the role of security guards field of crime and drug traffic, becoming an important political in some "favelas",eliminating or sending away those who robbed issue at various levels.Locally,the drug dealers started to take in- working people or raped their daughters(8). But their very pres- terest in the election for the dwellers' associations, advancing ence and the way they dealt with the young users of the drugs candidates linked to them.The local youth became more identi- they sold were incentives for the violent criminal activities of fied with them and explicitly supported their election because of some of these young men. Consequently, the images of traffick- a general process of marginalisation among the poor youngsters, ers have always been ambivalent and fearsome. including the repressive measures taken by policemen during the last decades, which affected all the poor young males who Within the associations,the main effect of the undesired pres- corresponded to the police stereotype of the criminal.Many drug ence of drug dealers' gangs was to make unfeasible certain rou- users,and not only dealers,have been arrested or coerced to pay tine activities and administrative functions such as the gathering bribes to policemen in order to avoid imprisonment. of water supply bills, which is a single rate for the whole area or shanty-town,and,of course,free and public discussion of certain At the local level,amongst the community leaders who direct common problems including noise and violence. Light, water, the dwellers' associations, silence about the bandits' actions and and sewage are the main collective problems which "favelados" a constant blame on police repression is the most common re- are unable to solve without services from the State, which were sponse.The revolutionary paradigm combined with the millenar- attended to during the eighties. But although light supply fol- ian matrix of political action,although not always explicit,informs lowed a model, adopted by the State company LIGHT, in which this interpretation of the increasing rates of crime against prop- the population was to, first of all, organise in commissions that erty and the rising tide of violence against persons as a manifes- would discuss with the technicians the way of doing the con- tation of the active struggle of the poor against the rich and the nection network, and then put meters for each home, the other oppressive State,as well as a sign of the end of the world era.The two public services did not accomplish the task with the same role played by organised crime and the Mafias has been under- success.For light was paid by each family and the company itself stated, if not ignored. Another trend is to reduce the importance was in charge of maintenance.Water and sewage services — pro- and impact of violent crime as exemplified by the media,and the vided by another State company CEDAE — followed a different imaginary fear on the part of the propertied classes. policy, for some associations received the necessary money for the job and there was little or no public discussion of the techni- Studies carried out in Rio de Janeiro focussed on shanty- cal plans. In the end, each family had to decide and do the nec- towns or periphery districts,where the poor live,and showed an- essary aqueduct or sewers, by finding the main pipes coming other type of enclosure as well as the substitution of political dis- from the central source or going to the main sewer. Because of course for another type of discourse.The dwellers' associations the lack of a common plan,some dwellers built the pipes and the at these places were deeply affected by the recent presence of sewers very close to each other, but the payment for this state very well-armed gangs of drug dealers whose violent crimes service, especially the water supply, remained collectivised.This (8) These facts may be the reason why so many com- made deaths and rapes banal.Around 1985,the associations be- caused more tensions and conflicts between neighbours, who munitarian leaders refuse to talk about the violent came part of the dealers' interests, Catholic churches were sur- were increasingly closer to each other due to the growing pop- means employed by local drug dealers, as it hap- rounded by small houses and huts bought by the dealers who ulation of those shanty-towns already attended by these public pened recently during the trial of the policemen in- also became careful listeners of the priests' sermons, and services. volved in the killing of 23 workers at a shanty-town Evangelical temples were forced to accept the existence of hid- (Vigário Geral),well-known for the feud between its young traffickers and the ones belonging to a close ing places for the dealers and their friends or their arms just Greater density and a confusion between what were the in- shanty-town (Parada de Lucas).In this feud,dozens above them. (O Globo, 13/10/1993). Criticisms of their activities, dividual and the collective responsibilities, as well as conflicts of youngsters have died. of course, were not welcome and these tense relationships with over the use of the State and non-governmental organisations

FORMER NEXT 61 Chapter 2 made the functions of the dwellers' associations more difficult. later become incorporated into the sociability and solidarity net- Lack of juridical means and power to implement their decisions works created.There is also a focus on the solutions and not on a and to collect payments were some of the reasons for an in- denunciation discourse, mixing old and new political patterns creasing willingness to accept the leadership of traffickers, who and religious language which is essentially Christian.The local have already been playing the role of security guards in some committees of this campaign are simultaneously marked by the "favelas", replacing the former leadership in the associations. A perspective of autonomy and freedom and by localised particu- great despair took hold of the activists who believed in the par- lar associations which prefer to attend to their own kind: neigh- ticipation model of democracy and who, no longer able to get bours,church members.That is,their help is directed towards the them to meetings,watched their members leave the associations poor of their neighbourhood, shantytown, church etc. (Peppe,1992).Besides that,as it has happened in São Paulo,people became more isolated inside their homes and families as a This implies a new political culture that is not organised in the consequence of living without predictability and security,a con- axis of work, such as trade unions or political parties had before sequence not only of economic crisis and inflation,but also of vi- (Jacobs,1992).Their personal investment is made on community olence and mistrust. work, where they live. For them, the worst picture of poverty is not being able to participate in such associations or exchange That meant people became withdrawn in their own private groups.There is in fact a dislocation of class compromises from affairs, and more isolated inside their houses and families.There the place of work to the local or dwelling areas.The most active was also an enormous increase in the attendance to new participants in their former associations (recreational, dwellers’ Pentecostal churches which emphasised the need to destroy the etc), who are now under the control or limited by the power of devil through rituals of exorcism performed on the individual. traffickers, have changed their way of participation and inter- This of course occurred at the expense of Afro-Brazilian religions vention. and the Catholic Church, the former, because it has never had conceptions of absolute moralities,the second,because it is fully involved nowadays in political and collective activities in the dwellers' associations, most of which were controlled by people linked to the Church.In it they developed a meaning of community which is making the political translation of this spur of individualism more difficult which is not yet linked to civil or political rights.

More recently, campaigns in favour of citizenship and social justice have spread all over the country. One of the most important ones — a Ação da Cidadania contra a Miséria e a Fome — began in Rio de Janeiro in middle class areas or public organisations. After a few years, it shifted from these middle class space to poor areas. It began as a way of creating social links independently from the State and the market, aiming at alternative actions for fighting social inequality, since the State proved inefficient to do so.Nevertheless,the Campaign mimed and interacted with governmental organisations,as it established new forms of association, reinventing old patterns and creating new ways of participation.The social links are initially established between socially distant people who are unknown to each other, and these

FORMER NEXT 62 Chapter 2 PAIVA,V."Violência e Pobreza: a educação dos pobres", em Zaluar, Bibliographical References Alba (org.) Violência e Educação, Cortez Editora, São Paulo, 1992.

ALVITO, M."A honra de Acari", em Velho, G. Cidadania e Violência, REUTER, P.Disorganised Crime: Illegal Markets and the Mafia, Editora da UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, 1996. MIT Press, Massachusetts, 1986.

ARLACHI,P.Mafia Business,the Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, RICOEUR,P.Soi-même comme un autre.Paris: Le Seuil, 1990. Londres, 1986. SASSEN,S.The Global City: New York, London,Tokyo.Princeton, CAILLE,A.Don,intérêt et désintéressement; Bourdieu, Mauss, Platon Princeton University Press, 1991. et quelques autres.1a.edição, Paris, Éditions La Découverte/M.A.U.S.S, 1994. SALAMA,P.Macro-economie de la Drogue, GREITD-CEDI, mimeo, Paris, 1993. CALDEIRA,T.P.City of Walls, Phd thesis, Berkeley, 1992. SCHIRAY,M."Les filières-stupéfiants: trois niveaux,cinq logiques", CALVI,F.La Vita Quotidiana Della Mafia dal 1950 a Oggi, 1a. em.Futuribles, n° 185, Paris, mars 1994. edição 1986; 3a.edi.: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, Milão, 1993. SULLIVAN,M."Crime and the social fabric",in Dual City,restructuring CASTELS,M.& MOLLENKOPF,J.(ed.).(1992),Dual City:Restructuring New York.New York:Russel Sage Foundation, 1992. New York.Nova Iorque, Russel Sage Foundation. THOUMI, F.Economia, Política e Narcotráfico, Ed.Tercer Mundo, GEFFRAY,C.Rapport d'activité n° 2 du projet: Effects sociaux, Bogotá, 1994. économiques et politiques de la penetration du narcotrafic en Amazonie Bresilienne, ORSTOM/ CNPq/ Museu Goeldi, 1996. TULLIS,L.Handbook for Research on Illicit Drug Traffic:Socioeconomic and political consequences, Greenwood Press, New york, 1991. GENDROT,S.Ville et Violence, Presses Universitaires de France, —————Unintended Consequences;Illegal Drugs and Drug Policies Paris, 1994. in Nine Countries, Ed Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1995.

GIDDENS,A.As Conseqüências da Modernidade, Editora UNESP, UNDCP, World Drug Repport.Londres e Nova Iorque: São Paulo, 1991. Oxford University Press, 1997.

GUIMARAES,H.& de PAULA,V."Cotidiano escolar e violência", VAN DER VEEN,H.T."The International Drug Complex:When em Zaluar, A.(org.) Educação e Violência, Cortez Ed., S.Paulo, 1992. the visible hand of crime fractures the strong arm of the law", European University Institute, San Domenico, HABERMAS,J.Pensamento Pós-metafísico,Tempo Brasileiro: Italy, Internet www.unesco.org/most, January 1998. Rio de Janeiro, 1991. VARGAS,J.,AEspera do Passado,tese de mestrado. em.Antropologia, JACOBS,B.Fractured Cities, Routledge, London and New York,1992 IFCH/UNICAMP,1993.

JANKOWSKI,M.S.Islands in the Street, 1a ed. ZALUAR,A.,A Máquina e a Revolta, Editora Brasiliense, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1991. São Paulo, 1985. —————,"Teleguiados e chefes: juventude e crime", em Religião e LINS,P.Cidade de Deus, Cia das Letras, São Paulo, 1997. Sociedade, n°1 14/1, 1988.

FORMER NEXT 63 Chapter 2 - Bibliography —————, Condomínio do Diabo, Editora da UFRJ e Revan, Rio de Janeiro, 1994. —————, "O Medo e os Movimentos Sociais".Revista Proposta, ano 23, 66: 24-32, 1995. ______,The Drug Trade,Crime and Policies of Repression in Brazil", em.Dialectic Anthropology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, vol.20, pg 95-108, 1995b. ______,"A globalisação do crime e os limites da explicação local", em.Velho, G.Cidadania e Violência, Editora da UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, 1996. ______, "Gangs,"galeras" e "quadrilhas": globalisação,juventude e violência", in H.Vianna, "galeras" Cariocas.Rio de Janeiro, Editora da UFRJ, 1997a.

FORMER

64 Chapter 2 - Bibliography Chapter 3 . The State of São Paulo is an important crossroads for DRUG TRAFFICKING trafficking in and out of South America, since it has the conti- IN AN URBAN AREA: nent’s major air and seaports. THE CASE OF SÃO Another feature, nothing to do with the city as such but PAULO mainly connected with the conjuncture, is the emergence of a steadily growing criminal subculture. One reflection of this is an Guaracy Mingardi increasing crime rate over the past twenty years. Homicides, for and Sandra Goulart example, have increased from 30 per hundred thousand inhabitants to almost 60 between 1980 and 2000. Certain crimes Introduction against property have increased even more than that.There are countless theories to explain this increase but the fact is that This chapter summarises a three-year research project. Over there are greater numbers of outlaws in the city than ever this period we endeavoured to analyse the modus operandi of before. Drug dealing is one of the ways how many of criminals illegal drug traffickers in the city of São Paulo. It aims at map- earn their living. ping drug trafficking in the city, identifying the traffickers’ modus operandi, conducting a case study in an area of intense trafficking, and understanding the use of the city as a hub in The Geography of the Traffic domestic and international trafficking.This chapter presents the main research findings. The first stage of the research(1) was of a geographical nature. We tried to visualise the question by mapping out the distribu- For years Brazil has been considered as an important thor- tion of trafficking and the use of illegal drugs in the city.This was oughfare for the international cocaine trade. On many occa- an important approach for relating the traffic to the various city sions the subject has been addressed in a simplistic way by the districts and use of drugs to the socio-economic conditions of domestic and foreign press, as if the big international gangs local residents. simply passed through Brazilian territory or as if the trade had little to do with the country’s economy, politics or society.In this Our data were collected from three sources: study, we have set out to demonstrate how this trade operates in the city of São Paulo and how its organisation has a strong 1) Reports of an incident (BO). This is a document pre- presence among local dealers, even if we only take internation- pared by the civil police al trade into account. registering a formal complaint.The majority of the BOs refer to cases where Situated in the southeast of the country,the city of São Paulo someone was caught red-handed. is the capital of the federate-state of the same name and has a population of just over 10 million. Some of its features currently 2) Book of police incidents from the Departemento make it the leading Brazilian city in terms of trade in illegal Estadual de Narcóticos drugs, both locally and internationally.These features include: (DENARC), a specialized agency in the combat against drug trafficking. . São Paulo is Brazil’s most populous city; . It is the city with the greatest economic development; 3) Investigation Orders (OI). These aredocuments in . It is generally the main consumer market of any prod- which all the Civil Police (1)The general coordination of the project was over- seen by political scientist Guaracy Mingardi, while uct be it, legal or illegal; or to the Ouvidoria de Polícia ("Police Ombudsman") are reg- anthropologist Sandra Goulart took charge of co- . It possesses the most extensive street network in the istered. ordinating the fieldwork. country;

NEXT 65 Chapter 3 It is clear that at this stage of the research we made the Table 2 : option to work exclusively with official documents. The main Origin of dealers caught red-handed — 1996. reason is that they enabled us to begin the research by setting a quantitative framework. Obviously these figures, collected for ORIGIN PERCENTAGE us,did not resume our aim but allowed us to have an initial idea. CITY OF SÃO PAULO 41.8 In our research we did not use the official figures but worked REST OF STATE OF SÃO PAULO 13.7 with earlier State documents. Our figures differed from the NORTHEAST REGION 18.5 police statistics on various counts. SOUTHEAST REGION 7.0 SOUTH REGION 5.0 The DENARC reports confirm the increase in the city’s impor- CENTRE WEST REGION 4.1 tance in the drugs market.The numbers of arrests of suspects in NORTH REGION 0.6 flagrante delicto reveal a steady increase in the numbers of NON BRAZILIANS 13.7 arrests of dealers and users but also of users voluntarily applying for treatment services. Source: DENARC reports

Table 1: It comes as no surprise that 55.5% of all dealers operating on Annual number of arrests relating to trafficking, the São Paulo market come from the State of São Paulo.In many DENARC. 1991-96. countries it tends to be the rule that drug dealing on the streets

YEAR ARRESTS is done by local leaderships. A preliminary observation of our 1991 284 police inquiries showed that even those born a long way from 1992 406 the city of São Paulo were mostly long-term residents in São Paulo. The only surprise is the high number of non-Brazilians. 1993 507 According to police statisticians’ information most of these for- 1994 408 eigners were arrested for international trafficking and nearly all 1995 637 were caught in the State’s harbors and airports, trying to leave 1996 689 Brazil in possession of cocaine. Source: DENARC reports Table 3: As these figures show, there was an increase of 243% in the Prisoner's situation regarding the labour market annual total of arrests made by DENARC over a period of six years. Much of this increase is due to the expansion of the EMPLOYMENT SITUATION PERCENTAGE department, which in 1995 gained an intelligence division, but EMPLOYED 82.5 undoubtedly also reflects the increase in the number of dealers UNEMPLOYED 17.5 operating on the São Paulo market.We only mention the statistics predating the beginning of the research, for this reason: as Source: DENARC reports soon as we began collecting our own data it became obvious that we could not trust the official figures. This table is very unreliable.The fact that most of the dealers arrested declared that they were employed is no surprise. Since in order to obtain mercy from the law they need to have a job and a permanent residence most professional thieves declare themselves to be employed (Mingardi, 1992). It is also easier for them to persuade judges that they are drug addicts not dealers. Most of the information provided by the accused is never

FORMER NEXT 66 Chapter 3 checked by the police, the State Prosecutor or the Courts. Even Table 6: if they are found out,as defendants they cannot be punished for Persons dealt with by the state prosecutor’s office perjury. The unreliability of these data has been confirmed by for using or dealing in drugs — São Paulo — the information gathered from drug users approaching samples 1990, 1995 and 1999. DENARC for treatment of their own accord. Of the 818 persons

who sought this service 587, or 71.8%, turned out to be jobless. DRUG PERCENTAGE CRACK 54.0 While they are not of use for identifying the jobless who turn COCAINE 22.1 to dealing, the figures supplied by DENARC do help us MARIJUANA 5.3 understand how many children and adolescents are involved. OTHERS 18.6 The following two tables throw light on two major points with relation to minors held for the possession or for dealing in Source: State Prosecutor's Office and DENARC illegal drugs.Table 4 shows that over half of the minors detained were accompanied by an adult, possibly their supplier or boss. The explanation for this table, with its variations in the ranking of the most used drugs, can be found in the history of local Table 4: consumption. Marijuana is the most traditional of all the illegal Minors taken into custody for dealing: substances used in Brazil. It was used for decades by all social whether or not they are accompanied. classes. Cocaine, which was fashionable among the upper classes and in bohemian circles in the first half of the century, flood- EMPLOYMENT SITUATION PERCENTAGE ed back on to the market in the 1980s. It was used, above all, by EMPLOYED 82.5 the middle classes, as its price has never been attractive for the UNEMPLOYED 17.5 less privileged. During the 1990s, crack became the "poor man’s cocaine" and flooded sectors of the market previously limited Source: DENARC reports to other substances. This is true of street children, who traditionally sniff shoemaker’s glue to escape their harsh reality for a Table 5: short time. One part of town — about twenty blocks — in the Illegal drug found on minors taken into custody. centre has so many crack users that it has been nicknamed Cracolândia or "Crackland". The crack boom has now subsided ARRESTS OF MINORS PERCENTAGE and, after twenty years of oblivion, marijuana is making a come- ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT 53.0 back as a cause for concern. NOT ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT 47.0 The past two decades, successively dominated by cocaine Source: DENARC reports and crack, have left a deep imprint on the São Paulo market. They have led to the entry of new players who have pushed out The figures clearly show that children and adolescents taken the old dealers. The major novelty is the increase in dealing- into custody by DENARC are crack users. This is a relatively related violence, which scarcely existed until the early 1970s. recent phenomenon.The ranking of the most sold illegal drugs Another consequence, observed mainly in the last ten years, is varies considerably over time, according to fashion or availabili- the fragmentation of the market. Unlike the Rio de Janeiro mar- ty. The following table shows how consumption in São Paulo ket, essentially based on cocaine and highly organised, the São changed in just five years. Paulo market is fragmented. It seems to follow the classic liberal model, with an infinite number of dealers and buyers, which results in strong competition and keeps prices low.

FORMER NEXT 67 Chapter 3 Drugs have to travel great distances to reach the city. Guilherme stands out precisely because of the existence of the Marijuana comes from several sources: from Paraguay by lorry, Carandirú penitentiary complex, where some 7000 inmates were hidden among other goods, the most common of which is tim- held. ber, or from the north-eastern states of the country, mainly Pernambuco. Small quantities of free-base cocaine — up to 20- Cocaine does not circulate very much in the two poor 30 kg — are normally bought at the Paraguayan or Bolivian bor- peripheral areas of the city, South and East. Most seisures are der, while larger amounts are usually flown into Brazil, the concentrated in the central and northern areas.The only excep- planes landing and unloading in various parts of the state. tion is 27 DP,Ibirapuera,one of the wealthy districts.No working Dealers, who have already paid for the goods by bank transfer, class district experiences high levels of cocaine seisures. receive their orders and transport them by van or lorry to their operating base in the city.The largest seisures of free-base have Of the five districts with the highest number of crack involved transactions taking exactly the form just described. seisures, four are downtown: Santa Efigênia (3 DP, or The largest was 300 kilos in early 1999. Cocaine for local con- "Crackland"), Santa Cecília (77), Bom Retiro (2 DP) and Cambuci sumption arrives in São Paulo by similar routes, but also comes (6 DP). The majority of arrests for the use of or dealing in crack from Amazonia and sometimes directly from Colombia. The take place in Santa Efigênia, known since the early twentieth extra expense is compensated for by its sale price, twice that of century as "Boca do Lixo" or "Garbage Outlet".For decades it has crack(2). been home to brothels and striptease joints. In the first half of the twentieth century it was also known for its morphine and Another important issue concerns the rise in crack use. This heroin dens (Fonseca, 1988). product is given a great deal of attention, more than any other in the media, to such an extent that it can seem to be the only Outside the downtown area, crack has been highly popular drug used.This can be explained thanks to three factors. in the extreme east and north of the city. This is interesting 1. Many consumers use it in downtown streets. because roughly speaking they are under quite different socio- 2. Among the three substances mentioned here, crack economic conditions. The extreme east is part of the poverty is the one that produces belt, densely populated with low-income residents(3). The north- harmful effects within the shortest period. ern district, on the other hand, has a core of middle class and 3. Its rapid introduction onto the market. In 1990 it lower class residents but the population is less dense. Another barely existed and only factor to be taken into consideration is that this district is home 0.7% of all police seisures concerned. By 1995 this fig- to most officials of the Military Police, possibly leading to more ure had risen to 70%, law enforcement. according to DENARC.

However, it may be that the police have been focusing on The São Paulo Market (2) A kilo of freebase can be bought in Bolivia for crack dealers for some time, increasing the number of seisures $400; once turned into crack rocks, it may be worth and distorted the sampling figures. According to various surveys, there are at least three profiles as much as 4000 - 6000. Cocaine in powder form costs more than double,but in compensation can be of illegal drug dealers operating in the city of São Paulo: resold at a higher price, mainly because it increases Marijuana is in first position because it is still mostly used in greatly in volume as each buyer "baptizes" (mixes) it, middle class neighbourhoods. Of the four areas with the largest Micro drugs dealers: so that one kilo may have turned into as many as four number of cases involving marijuana, three are in middle class They correspond to the biggest group operating in the city. kilos by the time it reaches the end-user. districts:Pinheiros (14 DP = Distrito Policial or precinct),Ibirapuera Most of them are young, aged 16-27 years. They mainly sell (3) This is a very large district with a mixed population and pockets of middle or even upper class res- (27 DP) and Consolação (4 DP). The exception is the Distrito crack rocks and small amounts of marijuana. Almost 80% of idents,but as whole the far eastern fringe of the city Policial of Vila Guilherme (9 DP), including cases registered relat- dealers arrested belong to this group. The dealing model they is inhabited by poor or working class residents. ing to the Carandirú headquarters. In most criminal statistics Vila follow cannot be regarded as organised crime: most work inde-

FORMER NEXT 68 Chapter 3 pendently. They buy small amounts of marijuana or crack Despite the evidence, he was wordless and did not call a stones, and resell them for a small profit. Most of the profits go lawyer. into drugs for their own use.They are disorganised and poor. Of three arrested two were jobless and one was a poor addict and Small dealers are on the borderline between the gangs and none tried to bribe the police officers arresting them with a sup- organised crime. According to an assessment of their own ply of drugs. It is obvious that these cases of petty dealing do members,the downtown groups are less organised,without ter- not involve criminal enterprises or traditional ones. They act ritories, and their hierarchies are weak. In some peripheral areas alone or at most in badly organised gangs. Their only possible bocas are more structured. Lookouts warn of police arrivals; link with organised crime is the type of customers they have. there are so-called "passadores" (pusher) or "aviões" (airplane) This type of dealing is the most common in the downtown area who deliver the goods, boca managers and bosses. of São Paulo. A few are not addicts themselves, only dealers. Some of them are "promoted" to the status of small dealer.The The retail drug price varies from outlet to outlet.The clearest two cases below are typical. example is that of crack stones whose price may be as high as R$ 10.00 while in Crackland they can be found for as little as R$ Pedro was arrested in a bar for selling two small packets of 3.00. cocaine. He was also in possession of a small amount of marijuana. He had had no previous trouble with the police and had Medium dealers no lawyer. They are retailers or wholesalers dealing in amounts up to Luciano was arrested while selling to a girl three crack 250kg. stones downtown, in rua do Triunfo, Crackland. He confessed to Kito was arrested, with a helper in a truck, in a lorry transport- be not only a dealer but also an addict. He also said that he was ing 200kg of cocaine base paste on the way to São Paulo. It is cal- selling drugs to buy his own. He had no police record or lawyer. culated that 700,000 to 1,000,000 crack stones can be produced from this amount of base paste. He is well known in the south of Small dealers: the city and he controls dealing in Vila Joaniza. He works with They are retailers but they also sell small quantities to other drugs in two ways. He transforms freebase into crack and sells it dealers.They normally operate with quantities of less than 10kg. at two outlets that he controls in that district. He sells wholesale to another smaller dealers who make their own crack. Small dealers may be independent or manage a boca (spots where traffickers and users meet). Often they have a criminal Both Kito and his assistant were primary of São Paulo. The record for dealing or other offences, usually crimes against drug had been collected from a plantation in the interior of the property. They do not work alone, unlike petty dealers. Very State of São Paulo where Bolivian dealers had dropped it from a often they have up to three partners or employees. Most of low-flying aircraft. It had already been paid for by bank transfer. them are aged 20 years or more, some more than 40 years. The gang has its own lawyer who is well known for his work The following two dealers belong to small dealer category: in major drugs trafficking cases.This implies a certain degree of Ávila was arrested while selling some 300 crack stones. He business stability. was arrested along with his uncle and partner in the deal. They were caught red-handed and neither volunteered the name of a lawyer.They were not armed. Violence, Corruption and Trafficking Tibiriça is typical — not specialised in a single type of merchandise. He had no criminal record and was arrested in his The introduction of crack and cocaine on to the São Paulo apartment with cocaine, freebase, LSD, marijuana and Ecstasy. market led to an increase in violence. Until the early 1970s only a few deaths in the city were related to drug dealing, most of

FORMER NEXT 69 Chapter 3 them the result of scores being settled between dealers. Drug The other reason for the lack of control and repression of the dealing and drug use are now responsible for almost 20% of Brazilian law enforcement services lies in their origin.The police, murders in São Paulo, but they are not distributed uniformly the public prosecution service and the judiciary were estab- throughout the city. There are areas where dealing is intense lished to act against individual criminals. The law itself was but there are few murders,while other areas are very violent but drafted based on individuals, rather than gangs. In a typical there is little in the way of drugs. My reading of this is that relat- case, the police arrest and supply evidence against an individu- ed to drug dealing violence is linked to two distinct factors: al selling cocaine, but only against him.They do not track down . the local history of violence: the areas in which deal- the other people involved. The prosecutor prosecutes only the ing causes many deaths are those in which the city has tradi- dealer, and the judge does not even want to know whether or tionally been more violent, for example, the south-western dis- not the individual belongs to a gang. Each simply follows the tricts which have been at the top of the murder chart for more letter of the law, which dictates the imprisonment of the dealer. than 20 years; . the shortcomings of law enforcement: in the district As far as big dealers are concerned, the Brazilian judicial sys- nicknamed "Crackland",right in the centre of the city and recog- tem hardly ever hears about them. Law enforcement with nised as the area where most crack is used, policing is far more respect to dealing leaves a great deal to be desired. There are effective than on the outskirts, where there is less drug use.The gross shortcomings in the way investigations on organised result is that the "Crackland" dealer engages in far less killing crime are conducted. Different police forces do not share the than his colleagues on the outskirts. same concept of organised crime. There is no clear idea as to how it should be tackled. The one thing that is absolutely clear Law enforcement,or rather its absence,is one of the factors is that the international drug trade is of exclusive competence affecting dealing.The various Brazilian police forces have little of the Federal Police. or no chance of tackling the problem.Except in very rare cases, it is only small and substantial dealers who come up against Who, though, is responsible for curbing trafficking between the law. Fewer than ten substantial dealers supplying São States? In fact, no sector of the Brazilian police is specifically Paulo have been arrested in the past ten years, while it is esti- responsible for it. State police seeks only to curb local dealing. mated that there are at least a hundred of them operating in The Federal Police is responsible only for international traffick- the city. Several reasons for this ineffectiveness have been put ing. Metaphorically, it is safer to transport cocaine from Campo forward, two of which seem the most plausible. The first and Grande to São Paulo, a distance of more than a thousand kilo- perhaps more important is corruption. Since the cocaine metres, than to sell the cocaine in São Paulo, or transport it from boom, the number of cases of police officers involved in deal- Puerto Soares to Corumbá. The Federal Police operates at the ing has been increasing steadily. The corrupt São Paulo police border, the Civil Police in São Paulo. No one operates in officer has at least three ways of increasing his income with between. the help of drug dealing: . freeing prisoners in return of payment; Another weakness is the lack of communication between . taking half the quantity of cocaine seised and selling it. police forces. There is no practical way of exchanging informa- In order to avoid tion between State police forces. A computerised database has suspicion, he adds powder or another substance to the been established at the federal level very recently. It is fortunate cocaine, thus maintaining that major international gangs invest only rarely in the Brazilian the weight of the original seisure; market. They are usually involved only in transporting cocaine . receiving a previously agreed monthly payment from abroad. The fragmentation of the market is one factor that the gang, known as makes it unattractive for big dealers to invest in the Brazilian "the book". markets. The advent of crack may be the single factor that has mostly contributed to that fragmentation. Another important

FORMER NEXT 70 Chapter 3 factor is the difference within goods, as local crack consumption the locations registered by the police as being the main points dealers normally import free-base cocaine, but not cocaine in of use of or dealing in drugs were actually those most used by powder, which is the most exported product. A third factor is persons linked to the offences. The police registers may be of price. Cocaine costs ten to twenty times more in Europe and the more use for demonstrating a given operation or even a specif- United States than in Brazil. It is therefore far more profitable to ic perception of the area, rather than for analysing the move- export it than to sell it in the country.Furthermore,traffickers run ment, supply and demand of drugs in a given district.It must be few risks in Brazil, so exporters can operate with no fear of the noted that the registers at our disposal were all those of the law. Civil, not the military, Police.

This has resulted in the biggest traffickers using São Paulo as We also aimed to acquaint ourselves with the local popula- a base or channel. The state is a crossroads for most of the tion, identifying above all those groups most involved with goods passing though the country and is therefore also used by street life and the link that they maintain with the use of and cocaine exporters. dealing in drugs in general. On this score, we did research on the profile of this population in an attempt to verify, inter alia, which groups (children, beggars, prostitutes, transvestis, the jobless, Cracolândia ("Crackland") etc.) were most closely related to drugs. The third phase of the research was conducted in the district The first finding of our research was that the geographical identified as the main drug consuming area in the city, known definition of the district known as Crackland varies according to as Cracolândia or "Crackland". The research was conducted in the person asked. Some people think of it as only half a dozen May 1999. blocks while for others it covers virtually the whole of central São Paulo. Nonetheless analysts generally agree that the centre of Although the name of the area covered by the research sug- Crackland lies to the north of avenida São João, in Santa Efigênia. gests a close link with "crack", the intention of this study was to gather and analyse data concerning all kinds of illegal drugs. After the first week of fieldwork we noted that we could From this point of view, one of our questions referred to the restrict the area still even more. The cases of crack use or deal- analysis of the actual association between the district called ing observed indicated that we could exclude the six blocks Crackland and the use or sale of that drug.It should also be stat- between Av. Rio Branco and rua Santa Efigênia, fixing the latter ed that, when speaking of drugs, we shall invariably refer to street as the south-western limit of the area under research. those considered, by Brazilian legislation, as illegal whether for sale or use. In other words, these are "illegal drugs". In the first half of the twentieth century this district was known as the Bohemian quarter of São Paulo. Over the past few Initially we consulted police sources, classifying and decades it has suffered from the same inner city decay as the analysing police records and denunciations to the Civil Police rest of downtown São Paulo and lost its status. Until crack (DENARC and DECAP), relating to offences involving the use of arrived it was known as Boca do Lixo, as low-class prostitutes or dealing in crack, and other drugs. This covers the period lived there. In the 1970s, for example, the whole area from pre- between June 1998 and March 1999. sent-day Crackland to Av. São João was full of striptease joints, brothels and, latterly, explicit sex joints. The arrival of crack After having gathered data from these sources, we decided brought the district down even further. to analyse the empirical reality. We compared the figures from the police data with our actual observation, with a view to It could be divided into at least three separate areas: understanding the police records, especially because they were - Crack Zone — rua dos Andradas, rua Vitória, rua dos incomplete.On the other hand,we also set out to verify whether Protestantes and rua Gal. Osório

FORMER NEXT 71 Chapter 3 - Prostitution Zone — Basically rua Santa Efigênia and changes occasioned by the arrival of crack in the area. rua dos Andradas, and the interlinking side streets. - Mixed Zone — Blocks nearest to rua Mauá, Av. Duque We noted that anyone directly involved in drugs, and in par- de Caxias,Av.Ipiranga and Av.Cásper Líbero,i.e.near the bound- ticular in crack,tended to have been in the area for less time.The aries of Crackland. same goes for the street dwellers not directly related to illegal drugs; one possible explanation is the apparently fluctuating character of this population. In fact, we noted that both groups Log of Interviews and Fieldwork — persons involved in illegal drugs and street dwellers — constantly move around between Crackland and other parts of the The fieldwork entailed regular visits to the area, carried out city. Although some questions were common to all the inter- on different days and at different times, with a view to observ- views, some of them involved special points, depending on the ing the differences in the movements connected with the use group to which the interviewee belonged.We defined four sep- and sale of drugs. The visits were made for the most part by arate groups, representing different types of occupation in researchers working in pairs, who walked around the different Crackland: blocks of Crackland, observing general activities and the flow of A. Persons formally employed and residents; people in the area, and making contacts with them. The initial B.The world of illegal drugs; contacts made it possible to gather information about C. Prostitution; Crackland, which helped us to create a log of interviews and to D. Street dwellers. select the people to be interviewed. Our initial contacts were rendered difficult by disastrous declarations by the police the A. Persons formally employed and residents week before. According to these declarations,the area was This group comprises persons who have been in the area for under police surveillance and being filmed. Nonetheless, we more than two years. Some of the interviewees have main- gradually managed to contact people and carry out our inter- tained working or residential links in the area under study for views.Contacts were made and people in the streets were inter- more than twenty years.This means that not only do they have viewed (both adults and children), along with persons linked a special overview of the changes that have taken place but also with prostitution, local residents, traders and local workers, peo- tend to have closer links with the district. ple involved directly with drugs,as users and dealers (adults and children) and local employers. Despite some variations within the facts about involvement with illegal drugs, people in Group A in general were neither Despite the differences between the interviews, we man- alarmed nor scared by the impact of activity resulting from the aged to compile a list of the questions common to all of them, use or sale of psychotropic substances. In fact, from the outset since the same points kept popping up. Our constant concerns of the empirical research, one fact that became evident at once were: how long the interviewees had been in Crackland; their was the natural way in which traders, employees and residents socio-economic profile; some details about their lives before in the district addressed the subject of drugs and the use of they came to the area; their relationship with drug users and crack in particular. dealers in Crackland; their position in Crackland. First of all, it is clear that this attitude shows the routine Some of the interviewees — traders, workers, those linked nature of this type of offence in the district. However, it also with prostitution and representatives of various bodies — had shows that the people involved with illegal drugs are not nec- been in Crackland for over twenty years. The interviews were essarily associated with being dangerous or seen as a threat to vital for our assessment of any changes in recent years in the society. On the contrary it was agreed that people involved in area currently known as Crackland. Given the tenor of our drugs deserved pity. Indeed, an idea that often emerged from research, we were interested in registering any facts about the interviews with members of Group A was that the most

FORMER NEXT 72 Chapter 3 negative effects of links with the world of illegal drugs were sion may be used by locals who do not use crack when refer- reflected in the lives of those persons involved in that world. In ring to people linked to the drug, whether users or dealers. It other words, for traders, employees or residents of the district, may also be employed by people involved in petty crime, such drug users and dealers were to be commiserated with or looked as prostitution or by street dwellers, especially groups of them down upon but not feared. who are very close to the world of illegal drugs, since they all share the same space, the street.In these cases the term is used This does not mean that the residents or workers in the area as a means of creating a distance between extremely close fail to recognise that violent acts linked with the use or sale of groups. It is important to highlight the difficulty of differentia- illegal drugs do take place. But it does imply that violence takes tion detected during the empirical research. By this we mean place within the group involved with those substances. There the distance between crack users and dealers. Although we were several reports of cases of physical aggression and even could say that many users do not identify themselves as nóias, death involving people directly related with the illegal drugs on the other hand most people selling crack are seen by the group.In general,the stance taken by the district’s residents and local community as users of the substance and are therefore workers could be defined as a kind of indifferent tolerance and referred to as nóias. a refusal to get involved. Many interviewees mentioned cases of those responsible for Another important issue concerns this group’s attitude selling crack ending up by consuming some of the crack that they towards the police. Curiously the police are often seen as a dis- were meant to sell.People working,residing or hanging around in turbance. One of the commonest criticisms was that police the district classify dealers according to the amount of crack action against crack dealing was inefficient. In most of our con- being sold. According to the local community there are small, tacts and interviews with local residents and workers this ineffi- medium and large dealers. Virtually all of them admit that in ciency was explained as being a result of informal agreements Crackland small dealers predominate or that people sell only between the police and local dealers. There were plenty of sto- small amounts of crack. One of the most usual explanations for ries about agreements between the police and certain dealers, this predominance is that dealers also use some of their mer- allowing free transit at a certain time of night. Many people chandise. referred to major negotiations between the police and dealers. However, this classification does not tally with what is B. The world of illegal drugs known about dealing in the city as a whole. Within the general This group comprises persons using or dealing in illegal classification of dealing in the city most local dealers are so- drugs. It is true that of all drugs the one most used in the area called petty dealers. Their suppliers are small dealers, possibly under research is crack.The users of this substance are known as getting their supplies from non-resident, substantial dealers. nóias.This term is used invariably by residents and workers, the There is no suggestion that large dealers even come to whole community in fact,for people who take crack all the time. Crackland. This difference between the local assessment and The expression refers to one of the typical side effects of crack the widely held view shows that the perspective of the local and is an abbreviation of "paranoia" — crack use results in a community is restricted to day-to-day observation. The table state of anxiety or nervousness and, above all, a desire to repeat below is an attempt to relate the two classifications. or even increase the dosage.

We realised that the term nóia is used whenever people try and distance themselves from practices linked to the use or sale of crack. In this way nóias are always "others" or, in other words, people seldom use it to refer to themselves. Nóias are uncon- trollably dependent on crack, i.e. they are addicts. The expres-

FORMER NEXT 73 Chapter 3 Table 7: This issue of the demand for the crack sold in Crackland Comparison between the classification used by the com- needs to be analysed more attentively. Whether the demand munity in Crackland and the police classification is mostly internal or external to the area under study could have different consequences for the origin of the money used LOCAL CLASSIFICATION GENERAL CLASSIFICATION for buying drugs. If the consumer market is essentially local SMALL PETTY the first question would be how the local residents can afford MEDIUM SMALL to buy drugs, especially since most of them are not involved LARGE SUBSTANTIAL in money-making activities. This points to a possible link between dealing in and consuming crack and acts of petty Since it transpired during our research that the most fre- crime, such as theft or robbery. On the other hand, if demand quently found drug in Crackland is crack, we shall now describe is mostly external that would reduce the link between local in detail how this substance is prepared, consumed and mar- crime and crack dealing and use. keted, and the profile of the people involved in its use. According to some reports and interviews the presence of The small dealers in the "area" not only can be identified as buyers and/or consumers of crack from outside the area used to users of crack but they also share many characteristics with be greater.This might be precisely because in the past the area nóias. Most them live in the same places as many of the nóias, was not yet generally known as Crackland but also because the namely the small boarding houses in Crackland, and although policing was less intensive. Once the area became more closely some of them are slightly better off than most users (many of associated with crack and, according to the statements, more whom cannot afford their daily rent) like crack consumers they "famous as Crackland", police action became more frequent, tend not to have a fixed abode, constantly moving from one scaring off any buyers from outside the district and conse- boarding-house to another. quently deterring them from coming to the district.

As far as the demand for crack is concerned,this is more con- This information matches the data presented in another troversial. In some reports it is stressed that local dealing is report where it is claimed that, although the district is now bet- mostly sustained by external demand,or in other words that the ter known than before as a place for crack, the main dealing in biggest buyers of the drug live elsewhere in the city and belong and use of crack in the district, both for external or internal to better off classes. According to this line of thought we heard demand, took place in the past. According to these reports, for stories that, especially at night, Crackland is frequented by "lux- example,whereas today it is possible to find blocks in Crackland ury cars" from which potential buyers emerge. where at night as many as thirty or forty people consume crack openly, in the past the same streets were full of people, includ- On the other hand, some of the interviews and information ing far more nóias (some reports speak of fifty people or more). suggest that local dealing is based far more on local demand. Consequently there would appear to be a kind of migration of Accordingly some of the local street dwellers — children, beg- users and dealers away from Crackland to other parts of the city. gars, unemployed persons and groups exercising activities such It could be concluded that the original Crackland is now being as prostitutions (including transvestites) or even people living dispersed and its members or protagonists are moving to other nearby — are said to be the main consumers. places like Praça Roosevelt or Praça República.

Initially our field observations seem to uphold this notion Still on the subject of dealing, it is worth mentioning the that dealing in Crackland is mostly based on local demand. prices of crack sold in the area under study.The price is R$ 5.00 During our incursions into the district we seldom noted the for a small crack rock while some larger rocks may fetch as much presence of anyone from outside. Nor did we notice the afore- as R$ 10.00. Rarer are tiny rocks sold for R$ 3.00. We noted that, mentioned "luxury vehicles" driving around Crackland. often, local consumers — children, street dwellers, prostitutes

FORMER NEXT 74 Chapter 3 and transvestites — buy a couple of crack rocks together and of bicarbonate of soda and powder or freebase cocaine. It is then share them. more common to use freebase and pure cocaine is very rarely used. They are mixed and cooked together and the rocks are As we said at the beginning of the chapter, our empirical formed from the vapour and ashes resulting from this process: research entailed daytime and night time walks around the this is crack proper.The place where it is prepared is called a coz- blocks of Crackland.We set out to observe movements linked to inha or "kitchen". dealing in and use of crack. Curiously we soon understood that our itineraries closely resembled those of users and dealers — Although we did not manage to extract from the locals any who continuously walk round and round while buying and sell- information about the exact location of the kitchens our infor- ing crack. Both buyers and sellers walked around streets most mation suggests that many of them are nearby or even in closely linked with traffic in the hope of making contact with Crackland, i.e. much of the crack sold there is prepared on the someone. Anyone walking around the area especially at night spot. According to interviews with former DENARC officials, can be approached, as they are seen as potential buyers or sell- until a few years ago nearly all the crack consumed was manu- ers. It is also interesting to note that we researchers were some- factured in the area. Dealers used around 500g of cocaine and times approached both by dealers wanting to sell us crack and 250g of bicarb. They would mix it together in a small pan and by buyers. obtain just under 750g of crack (some is lost during the process). With the increased demand some now has to be manu- While dealing entails constant moving about, crack users on factured elsewhere. Proof of this is that recently the police have the other hand usually consume the substance sitting still on seised crack from Bolivia and Paraguay. the pavements. They have a preference for pavements in front of long walls, i.e. where there are few shops or homes. They call Profile and situation of users and dealers:Owing to the short them "paredões" or "big walls".The paredões are mostly used by period of the study we were unable to work with a sufficiently nóias at night. During the day we sometimes found people in large sample of the community to extrapolate any socio-eco- Crackland using crack but we found far more at night.The same nomic means and other data. A farther-reaching study of the can be said of the dealing which, even more so than consump- socio-economic profiles of the population linked to the con- tion, mostly takes place at night. sumption of and dealing in crack would require a longer period of empirical research. However we shall present here some We could not determine the exact number of rocks that a observations on the initial data with respect to the features of nóia can consume in one night. Roughly we could say that a the users and dealers of crack in the research area. highly compulsive nóia can smoke as many as twenty rocks in a five or six-hour period, if he can afford to buy them. This does The first point to be highlighted concerns children involved not seem to be the case of local nóias who cannot afford that in crack use or dealing: crack is usually associated with minors, many rocks.In approximate terms, we could say that on average especially poor ones, street children and delinquents.This asso- they get through six rocks. ciation receives a lot of media attention — in fact Crackland became famous as a place where children could be seen smok- As we said earlier, the term nóia also refers to a side effect of ing crack in broad daylight. taking crack.This is related to the euphoria reached by the user and the paranoid desire to obtain another dose of crack, and However, during our research we noted that most people other more specific obsessive sensations, such as a heightened involved with crack in the district were adults although admit- feeling of persecution.Nóias are well known for constantly pick- tedly many of them were very young. There were adolescents ing up pebbles off the street in the hope that they are crack and children, but they were far fewer. In general, they can be rocks that have been dropped. seen in the daytime, especially the youngest of all. We did see Properties and preparation:Crack is obtained from a mixture children as young as 8 years old smoking crack in the street. Of

FORMER NEXT 75 Chapter 3 course, these were extremely shocking scenes and this is why group in Crackland. Some of them have been working there for the area is associated with child crack smokers. more than ten years. Female prostitution in the city is mostly based in certain Crackland streets, such as rua Santa Efigênia, a These surveys and the interviews, plus our observations, favourite haunt for prostitutes. indicate that most of these children have no fixed abode and sleep in the street or in parks. The Parque da Luz, for example, One interesting fact is that prostitutes mark out their own near Crackland, is full of children and other homeless sleeping, territory, and it is separate from that used for crack dealing. especially during the daytime — at night it is closed. During When we contacted or interviewed prostitutes we kept hearing the daytime we counted 19 people who slept there every day about the important difference between the prostitution area — five children and fourteen adults.Praça Roosevelt and Praça and the drugs area, especially with regard to crack. In one inter- da República were also mentioned as favourite sleeping view, in particular, the interviewee said that there was far more places. violence in "Crackland", and it was related to the crack trade.Yet curiously the interview was actually taking place in one of the At least one case, unconfirmed, was mentioned of middle streets in the area normally regarded as Crackland. This backed class children and adolescents leaving their homes because of up the notion that the streets frequented by prostitutes for their addiction. Apparently one is the disabled son of a judge soliciting customers are not seen as part of Crackland as such. and former detainee who lives in a Crackland boarding-house to consume crack; he is supported by his family whose attempts The same differentiation cropped up in interviews and other to remove him have failed. contacts with transvestites.These operate in various hotels and have been working in Crackland for nearly two years. The Children are the main victims of local violence since they transvestites we interviewed said time and time again that the are more heavily addicted to crack than adults. It is said that places where they worked had nothing to do with the crack many children are constantly attacked or even killed for fail- trade or any other drugs, although they admitted that away ing in their crack selling "duties".We tried to back this up with from the hotels other transvestites might be involved in crack evidence but could find no specific cases, over the previous use or sale — especially use. year, of murders of children in the district.We did come across various cases of sexual exploitation of minors related with the This differentiation in the minds of people linked with prosti- local crack trade. Girls are more exploited than boys; they sell tution does reflect the local situation to some extent, since prosti- their bodies for crack — our interviews found direct evidence tutes ply streets that are not mainly used for the use or dealing of of one case of this. crack, but it also needs to be put into perspective: after all, members of this groups are doing illegal work. Of course, it is very This violence does not affect only children. Adults also suf- important for prostitutes and transvestite prostitutes to make a fer the consequences of being related to the world of illegal clear distinction between their own activities and those linked to drugs. Many adults, like children, die of crack use, usually crack,as a way of toning down the illegality of their own activities. owing to overdoses. Some die as a result of fights with dealers or other users. However, if we take a closer look at the world of prostitution in the area under study we note that the separation between the C. Prostitution world of prostitution and the group linked with illegal drugs Apart from field observations on this group we also con- (especially crack) is not so clear-cut. Even in the surveys that ducted interviews with people involved in prostitution in showed up a distinction we can see that there are in fact many Crackland. We could divide this group into two sub-groups: connections between the two worlds. For example, in one inter- prostitutes and transvestite prostitutes. view with a prostitute, just after stressing the difference between The group of prostitutes seem to be the most established "crackland" and prostitution land, she went on to mention sever-

FORMER NEXT 76 Chapter 3 al occasions when her customers came to buy crack or asked is garbage.We observed countless members of the group sifting prostitutes how to get it. She also mentioned acts of violence or through the rubbish of local shops, especially between 7 and 9 attacks on prostitution due to the use of crack. p.m. when the rubbish vans pass through. Many of them recycle paper and walks through the streets pushing carts full of paper Many of the interviews with transvestite prostitutes empha- and scrap metal. sised the difference between their territory and "Crackland" but went on to mention cases of customers whose only reason for Their other source of income is, of course, begging. They do finding a transvestite prostitute was to have someone to smoke this mainly during the day.We noted, however, that the number crack with.They told stories of customers who paid transvestites of daytime beggars is smaller than the number of street for a whole night in order to smoke R$ 100.00 worth of crack dwellers at night. This may be explained by the fact that some rocks. beg in other parts of the city but come back to Crackland at night to sleep, collect waste paper or take crack. Transvestites and other prostitutes work in different places and streets possibly to respect each other’s stamping grounds. Contacts and interviews with members of this group sug- Nor do they work exactly the same hours. Prostitutes tend to gested that, precisely because of their close contact with the work in the daytime while transvestites tend to work more at crack-related group, they tend to be affected by the latter night. During our research we noted that the middle of the group’s actions.Sometimes conflicts among dealers or between night is crack time. After midnight hardly anyone out in the dealers and consumers of crack affect street dwellers not direct- street has nothing to do with crack, whether smoking or deal- ly involved in dealing in or using this drug. ing. The only exception is the transvestite prostitutes who ply almost the same areas as the nóias. Similarly the street dwellers may be confused by local traders with nóias and this results in more aggression towards D. Street dwellers them. In this regard, in an interview with a street dweller, a for- This group comprises people living in the street in Crackland mer detainee, we were told of the presence of vigilantes con- but not directly involved in the consumption of or dealing in tracted by local traders to remove people from the pavements crack. It is an extremely heterogeneous group, comprising begin front of some shops in the district. Some of the street gars, jobless persons, people in casual employment, homeless dwellers therefore prefer to sleep during the day. According to people including children, all kinds of people without occupa- another interviewee their preferred location was the Parque tions, former detainees, etc. It should be highlighted that it is da Luz, which opens at 8 a.m. Unsurprisingly, relations very difficult to distinguish genuine street dwellers from nóias between this group and the police are quite tense. in advanced stages of decline.

It is an extremely mobile group since its members are con- The Limits of Law Enforcement stantly being renewed, partly as a result of clean-up campaigns. While newcomers constantly arrive on the district’s streets, oth- The analysis of police law enforcement in Crackland was ers migrate to other parts of the city — thus the population is based on four different sources: always in flux. We opted for defining this group as a specific . Police reports on the use of or dealing in illegal drugs, Crackland community, not necessarily related with the world of . Direct observation, crack or other illegal drugs, because during our research we . Interviews, realised that it is a typical group in the district and occupied . Police statistics Crackland even before it received its moniker. The following tables and graphs were produced from the first source, police reports. They refer to the period January One of the main sources of income for members of this group 1998-April 1999 and cover the whole of 3 DP (Police District), not

FORMER NEXT 77 Chapter 3 only Crackland — which is just one third of the police district. Table 10: Place of arrest

The reason for taking into consideration all the police reports Place Number % De for the district is that many do not mention the exact location of Public highway 197 82 the arrest, and could refer to arrests inside or outside our spe- Hotel 30 12.5 cific area. Despite this, the assessment of all reports does not Apartment 6 2.6 interfere with the analysis since we verified that police action Bar 3 1.3 inside and outside Crackland differs little. Others 4 1.6 Total 240 100 Table 8: Substance seised by the police. The overwhelming majority of arrests take place on the pub- Substance NUMBER % lic highway. Hotels are in second place, with a significant char- Crack 195 81.3 acteristic. Of the thirty cases registered, only six were for pos- Marijuana 6 2.5 session alone. 18 were for dealing and another six both posses- Cocaine 17 7.0 sion and dealing. In other words three-quarters of the arrests in Crack and Marijuana 15 6.3 hotels were dealing-related. This led to the conclusion early on Crack and Cocaine 4 1.7 in the survey that local hotels are the venue for the heaviest No information 3 1.2 dealing. Total 240 100 As a rule the quantity of illegal drugs seised is very small — This table unequivocally demonstrates that the main mer- 7.3 grams on average — confirming the notion that the police chandise in the area is undoubtedly crack. Out of every five focus on users and petty dealers. Only 1.742kg in all was seised arrests at least four were crack users and dealers, as the area’s and the biggest seisure during the period studied was only name suggests. The following table shows the percentage of 315g of crack. Direct observation and interviews revealed other arrests of dealers and users by the police. significant facts: 1. The Military Police regularly but inefficiently patrols the Table 9: Reason for imprisonment area. We interviewed someone who had been stopped by the police and had marijuana on him. Reason Number % 2. The work of the Military Police is often half-hearted. Dealing 71 29.6 We observed a case where policemen were searching people in Possession 126 52.5 a bar and watching a football match at the same time. Anything Possession and dealing 43 17.9 smaller than a weapon would not have been found. Total 240 100 3. Some places, such as boarding-houses, are patrolled virtually daily.Yet known dealers are scarcely affected. The most interesting thing about this table is the small num- 4. The Civilian Police — especially DENARC — spend ber of arrests for dealing in illegal drugs — under 30%. In the the night in a local bakery.Virtually every night that we spent in city as a whole more than 40% of police arrests are for dealing, the area we saw a DENARC vehicle parked outside and its occu- which suggests that in Crackland the proportion of arrests of pants were drinking, eating and watching TV. users to arrests of dealers is higher than elsewhere. 5. The Civilian Police use informers who act as agents provocateurs. We were approached by one who asked if we wanted to buy some crack in an obvious attempt to provoke us into an illegal act. In police language this is known as "criar uma situação" or creating a situation. Those involved may have to bribe their way out.

FORMER NEXT 78 Chapter 3 6. Information from traders, locals and users told us International Trafficking that some military policemen often break any crack pipes they find in order to obtain some of the crack in addition to the R$ Unlike what happens in the case of local trafficking, in the 20.00 they extract from the nóias. case of international trafficking we discovered that various Our other source, police statistics, enabled us to compare criminal organisations are involved in transport of drugs.One of interviews with facts. The table below compares 1° Distrito the most important criminal organisations to have operated in Policia (1st precinct), or Sé, the city’s busiest district, with 3° the state developed in the 1980s and survived until 1992 or Distrito Policial, or Santa Efigênia. 1993. Its members included directors of medium-sized companies, four airline pilots, an influential politician, several police Table 11: officers and a big businessman. Its modus operandi could be Police records 1998 — Comparison between Sé described as follows:they bought cocaine in Bolivia or Paraguay and S. Efigênia and flew it to a medium-sized town in the middle of the state of S Efigênia Sé Difference São Paulo. From there, it was transported to the port of Santos, Homicide 31 67 -36 the busiest in the country, where it was loaded for transporta- Theft 4422 3523 899 tion to Europe. The town where the plane landed had several Robbery 2458 1976 482 advantages: it was dominated by the above-mentioned politi- Source: cap (Coordenadoria de Análise e planejamento — Analysis and plan- cian; the local airport was not monitored and the town was fair- ning coordination) SSP/SP ly close to Greater São Paulo. The ring was apparently broken following political change in the state when a new Governor One thing that stands out in this table is that 3° DP, where was elected whose party had no connections with the leaders Crackland is located, is not that dangerous, since fewer homi- of the ring. However, no important member of the group was cides take place there than in Sé.However the number of crimes arrested, apart from a few pilots who were arrested on landing. against property are far higher.This means that the information Nor was any police investigation opened against the heads of given us by the local community was incorrect on at least two the organisation. The political and economic influence of the scores: members of the ring was perhaps too great for the forces of law and order to confront. 1.The use of or dealing in illegal drugs in the district kill far less than is supposed; The following three cases concern other types of criminal 2. Offences committed by nóias to obtain money for organisation operating in Brazil. They are organisations that crack are committed in Crackland and not elsewhere. were founded abroad but established links with authentically Brazilian criminal gangs. Analysis of the police records on homicide or attempted homicide reveal other special features of the district. Of the fourteen records registered from 1 January to 15 May 1999 only The Mules from Nigeria half occurred in Crackland proper. The other seven took place elsewhere in 3° DP. Of the seven cases that took place within According to virtually all sources since the 1990s Brazil has Crackland only 4 were possibly related to drugs, the other three become one of the main hubs of cocaine traffic for the United were crimes passionnels, possibly exacerbated by the use of States and Europe. Major seisures have taken place at the crack — but this is just guess work. country’s main harbors and airports. Some were enormous, such as that made by the Federal Police in Amazonia, coming to more than three tonnes of cocaine.

FORMER NEXT 79 Chapter 3 Less newsworthy but far more common are arrests of persons flown direct to Europe, sometimes via Africa. Usually it was transporting small quantities of products hidden under clothing taken by customs but the person responsible for dispatching or in luggage. In some cases individuals have been arrested who it could not be found. Santos harbour or Guarulhos airport had ingested capsules containing a few grams of cocaine. One of were the main exit points. the main groups dedicated to this activity is composed basically of Nigerians. According to some police officers this is the main White Mules group. The penitentiary census of 1994, by the Secretariat of The organisation contract poor Europeans, mostly white, to Penitentiary Administration, confirms this to some extent. It act as mules (hence White Mules) and the merchandise travels revealed that 74 Nigerians had been taken into custody in São directly to the mule’s country of origin, by passing through Paulo — only in the prison system proper, without counting any- Nigeria. one held in remand in state or district police gaols.They were the main foreign contingent among the prisoners, exactly twice as White mules receive US$1000 - 2000 for the work plus travel many as the national group coming in second place, Chileans, 37 and subsistence allowances. They usually stay in flats rented for in number. a few days.In some cases they are attracted by the trip,an opportunity to travel. This was the case of two young, low class British The first cases involving Nigerians occurred in the early women, one white, one black, arrested by the Federal Police in 1990s.They aroused interest because of the unusual nature of Rio de Janeiro. According to press interviews they had agreed to what they were doing. Africans transporting cocaine from transport the cocaine because, in addition to the money, they Latin America to Europe.Over the next seven years, the system were entitled to a week in Rio, all expenses paid, a dream for became more sophisticated, in various stages, always one step someone of their economic status in normal circumstances. ahead of the police. Their cases are very similar to those of many others related in discos by wealthy Africans. Other mules are paid more but are A reading of police reports and interviews with police offers professionals; they are unconventional and are consequently responsible for the arrests revealed a historical model of the less suspected by the police. These included an elderly lady, for stages of the activities of the main criminal organisation of example. Nigerians carrying cocaine through Brazil: In the period of a year the São Paulo Civilian Police arrested Direct transport nearly 30 White Mules working for Nigerian groups. According The merchandise would leave Brazil directly from Guarulhos to police estimates this accounts for 10% of the total numbers. International airport (São Paulo) carried by the organisation Each mule transports 2 - 4 kg of cocaine. A single organisation members themselves. The destination could be Europe or they sent 20 or so of the White Mules arrested. It is calculated that might stop over somewhere in Africa. this organisation sent almost a tonne of cocaine to Europe in a single process.When arrested the mules revealed their contacts Other Nigerians with the Nigerians but later denied this when making state- Those carrying the cocaine were Nigerians not directly ments to the police or the courts. linked with the organisation but simply contracted as mules. They would pick up the merchandise in Brazil and take it to The manager of the organisation in Brazil, a Nigerian, Peter Nigeria from where it was transported to Europe or South Christopher Onwumere, was arrested in São Paulo on 27 March Africa. 1997, in possession of a small amount of cocaine and in the company of four other Nigerians. He spent most of his time in Concealed in cargo São Paulo but his men worked on the border with Bolivia. He The cocaine was transported as cargo, hidden among bought his cocaine on the Brazilian side of the border and his fridges, automobile parts or bottles of drink. Sometimes it was employees, some of them Brazilian, transported it in batches of

FORMER NEXT 80 Chapter 3 ten to fifteen kilos to São Paulo, where it was wrapped and sent Paulo, where they seised US $276,372 and the equivalent of by European "mule".The price of cocaine bought in Bolivia was nearly US $30,000 in Brazilian currency, as well as various docu- between one and two thousand dollars per kilo.When arrested ments and two vehicles. he had been living in São Paulo for seven years. Carlos Alberto is a former captain in the Colombian army Although fewer and fewer Africans are arrested in São Paulo expelled for involvement in drug trafficking. On the basis of the transporting cocaine,at least 25 have been caught over the past documents seised and information obtained principally from thirteen months (March 1996 - March 1997). Of these only 3 the FBI and the DIA (Direzione Investigativa Antimáfia),it can be were women. 18 were of Nigerian nationality, 3 South African stated without any shadow of a doubt that he was one of the and one Liberian. The average age was 30 years — 7 were 28 leaders of an international drug-trafficking gang. years old, the commonest age. The traffickers’ modus operandi was as follows: they hid the Many of them were in possession of drugs but had not drugs in mattresses, blankets and car batteries.They issued invi- bought an air ticket anywhere.They were waiting for the mules tations to tender and bought several tons of organic fertiliser to arrive. Of those already with a destination most were headed and fishmeal. They probably mixed the drugs with these prod- for Abidjan or, in second place, South Africa. Others said they ucts. The drugs were put in containers and loaded on to ships. were going to Africa but the country or airport were not noted. Transportation abroad took place through export companies. The documents seised led to the identification of several of The merchandise was mostly carried in luggage — in seven these companies in São Paulo. The police also seised sewing cases it was found in false-bottomed cases. In second place machines for mattress making, and orders for fabric, rubber came hand luggage and in three cases the mules had swal- foam, thread and ribbon (for piecing together the mattresses lowed it. once they had been lined with drugs).

The work of Czech researcher Miroslav Nozina on the There is firm evidence of at least two large dispatches to Nigerian rings and their connections with the outside world Europe. The documents seised show that a large quantity of clarifies the issue a great deal. It shows that groups similar to mattresses was sent to the Padrino Trade Company in those operating in Brazil are among the main dealers in Eastern Yugoslavia through the port of Bar.The group’s accounts record Europe.They consist of about ten people and transport cocaine, the purchase and dispatch of mattresses but there is also a note marijuana, hashish and heroine to various countries in the of the purchase of a sewing machine for mattresses. It is sus- region; they have also been working in retail since 1994. Many pected that the mattresses left Brazil filled with cocaine. Nigerians studied chemistry in the former communist countries Another company in the group sent car batteries filled with and,he adds ironically,some were policemen in Nigeria or other cocaine to a Spanish company. African countries or studied at police academies in Eastern Europe. Groups are tribally or family based. Another factor that The São Paulo group was responsible for receiving the con- makes them similar to what happens in Brazil is the use of signments of cocaine, putting them in batteries and mattresses, "mules" of other nationalities — often men or women recruited then sending them to Yugoslavia in containers. In order to do in discos frequented by lower class Europeans. this, they rented depots throughout the city.

The drugs were unloaded at the port of Bar in Yugoslavia Wholesale Dealing and then sent to Bari in Italy, where they were received by the criminal organisation Sacra Corona Unita, which distributed On 5 February 1999, the police invaded the house of Carlos them throughout Europe, and more particularly in Spain. Alberto Ávila Gonzalez in Pirituba, a district of the city of São

FORMER NEXT 81 Chapter 3 A man known as Chepe apparently had important responsi- The name of Fausto Pellegrinetti appears in the Italian doc- bilities in the group. He is Colombian and looks after the trans- uments as the ring’s financial backer. Pellegrinetti commands portation of money. He is also known by the nickname given the Banda della Magliana, a criminal organisation that dis- him by the Criminal Investigation Division of the United States tributes cocaine and heroin in Rome. The bingo machines Treasury Department Internal Revenue Service. He is implicated came from the Recreativos Franco Company in Spain and were in a drug money laundering operation in Miami. imported into Brazil by Nevada Diversões, a company with a French director. His name is François Filippeddu and he The police have identified the names of more than twelve appears as the manager of Nevada Diversões Comércio people believed to belong to the gang. Most of them are part- Importação e Exportação Ltda. Another important person in ners in the companies used for the illegal trade, but a few of the the network is his brother Julian, a Corsican connected with people mentioned are simply names.They may not exist at all or one of the island’s separatist organisations, who played an they may be false names for the traffickers. important part in the initial phase of the operation when he several times negotiated with Lauricella, Pellegrinetti and the Because of mistakes made by the police, no members of the Brazilian partners the conditions for the formation of the com- ring have been caught. Some, like Captain Carlos Alberto, have panies needed for marketing the machines. Lauricella states disappeared. There is no evidence to suggest that the ring has that Jean Filippeddu invested money in the business, been disbanded. It is virtually certain that they are now using although his name appears nowhere. other phantom companies to conduct their illegal activities. Fragments of Lillo Rosario Lauricella’s interrogations sent by the Direzione Investigativa Antimáfia show that the Video Bingo accused acknowledged his involvement with Ivo Noal at several points. This new character is known in São Paulo as the On 27 October 1999, Manoel Tubino, former Director of the biggest operator of illegal lotteries (the game of bicho). When National Institute for the Development of Sport, denounced a the Mafiosi began to take an interest in the São Paulo market number of senior civil servants in the Ministry of Sport and Tourism to the Senate Committee on Social Affairs.According to was needed for the installation of the machines. He received him, they had favoured the owners of some of the "bingo hous- $80,000 a month. In another passage, Lauricella says that he, es" by giving them permission to use "video bingo" machines. personally, gave Noal $200,000. After this first denunciation, other civil servants also expressed other senior officials in the Ministry. The organisation worked with the aid of two operational sectors:the first concentrated on drug trafficking,the second on Documents submitted by the State Prosecutor’s office sug- the financial management of the affair. In order to carry out gest that the Mafia collaborated in the drafting of a ministerial their money-laundering activities, a de facto company was order authorising the import of video bingo machines, despite founded consisting of people whose reputation was at best the fact that the game was illegal. Furthermore, companies con- dubious; some of them were even wanted Mafiosi. The compa- nected with the Mafia apparently helped distribute more than ny had a "Board of Directors" composed of Lauricella and two twenty thousand slot machines in Brazil. other members of the organisation. Lauricella states that the funds for this investment came directly from drug trafficking.As According to the Italian DIA (Direzione Investigativa Pellegrinetti’s representative, he enjoyed considerable freedom Antimáfia), the owner of three of the companies that installed and therefore the possibility of knowing all about the underside the machines in Brazil is the creature of Lillo Rosario Lauricella, of the affair. one of the heads of the Italian Mafia who was arrested in Rome, accused of trafficking several tons of cocaine and heroine.

FORMER NEXT 82 Chapter 3 In order to conceal the illegal money by laundering it,a com- The problems caused by trafficking are not confined to the plex international mechanism of banking transactions was set producing or major consuming countries. Economic globalisa- up.According to the DIA reports,there were two banking routes tion and the opening up of an endless number of trade routes whose point of arrival was a Miami bank in the United States, have made all countries vulnerable to being used by crime, where the financial flow was deposited in a current account of which is also globalised. Who could have imagined, ten years a tourist company. All the DIA investigations are based on infor- ago, that Nigerians would transport cocaine to Europe from mation collected by the agency and intercepted telephone con- Brazilian airports, or that a criminal organisation like the Mafia versations. Another banking route began in Spain. Capital would launder drug money in Brazil in association with arrived in Brazil via Switzerland, Andorra and the United States. Brazilian partners, using countless companies throughout the world? However globalisation in no sense means doing with- Nobody has yet been arrested on the basis of these accusa- out local people; it does not imply only subordinating local tions, but a scandal of this magnitude would inevitably create powers to international groups. At least, not as far as criminal- an upheaval in political circles.Since the scandal was revealed in isation is concerned. This is because law enforcement is still the press, several of the companies have closed down. The arti- conducted on the basis of the police and legislation of each cles have also led to a number of resignations by officials, the individual country. Crime may be global, but law enforcement most recent being that of the Minister of Sport. is local, and no criminal organisation can do without "investments" in the law enforcement agencies of nation-states. Corrupting the Yugoslav police does not guarantee the free Concluding Remarks passage of traffickers in Brazil, and vice versa. If Colombian groups want to send cocaine to Italy via Brazil and Yugoslavia, The outlined description of trafficking set out above is not they will need support in all four countries. valid for ever. Gangs come and go fast, consumption locations change, as do the products used. Nonetheless, to a large extent, the model described on these pages is permanent. After all, some of the conditioning factors of dealing remain unchanged — police inefficiency and the social and economic inequalities that have always existed throughout Brazilian history.

In this chapter I have merely tried to demonstrate that the situation is more complex that many analysts normally imagine. For example, the international organisations cannot exist without contact with local groups. Like any criminal organisation, international drug trafficking networks cannot exist unless it has some link with the law enforcement services in the countries where it takes place. In the case of Brazil this means maintaining contacts with the federal and state police forces. Local criminal groups, in turn, only function within a determined social and political structure, which they stem from their strength. In a less corrupt state, for example, the international traffic by international organisations and the small-scale dealing in "Crackland" would have to be more discreet.

FORMER NEXT 83 Chapter 3 SOARES, L. E. (Coordenador). Criminalidade urbana e violência. ISER. Bibliography Rio de Janeiro, 1993.

AMORIM,C.Comando Vermelho. A história secreta do crime UCHÔA,M.A.Crack. O caminho das pedras. São Paulo. Ática, 1996. organisado. Record. Rio de Janeiro, 1993. ZALUAR,A.A máquina e a revolta. Editora Brasiliense. ARBEX,J.Narcotráfico. Um jogo de poder nas Américas. Editora São Paulo, 1985. Moderna. São Paulo, 1993.

ARBEX,J.& TOGNOLI,C.O século do crime. Boitempo. São Paulo, 1996.

COELHO,M.P.Crime organisado e pobreza: uma nova associação. In Polícia Militar, Estado e Sociedade. Fundação João Pinheiro. Belo Horizonte, 1992.

DEPARTAMENTO ESTADUAL DE NARCÓTICOS — Denarc. Relatórios 1995 - 1996 - 1997. São Paulo.

FONSECA,G.O submundo dos tóxicos em São Paulo. Ed. Resenha Tributária. São Paulo, 1988.

HUGGINS, M. Conciencia torturada: secretos y moralidad en la violencia policial brasileña. In: Justicia en la Calle — ensayos sobre la policia en América Latina. Fundação Konrad Adenauer/ Dike. Medellin, 1996.

MINGARDI, G.Tiras, gansos e trutas : cotidiano e reforma na Polícia Civil. Scritta. São Paulo, 1992.

MINGARDI, G. Corrupção e violência na Polícia Civil de São Paulo. In: Justicia en la Calle — ensayos sobre la policia en América Latina. Fundação Konrad Adenauer/ Dike. Medellin, 1996. MINGARDI,G.O Estado e o Crime Organisado. IBCcrim. São Paulo, 1998.

PEPPE,A.M.Associativismo e Política na Favela de Santa Marta (RJ). CSO/USP.Mimeo, 1992.

SCHIRAY,M.& SALAMA, P.(org.). Pensar as drogas. Fórum de Ciência e Cultura da UFRJ — Association Descartes. Rio de Janeiro, 1994.

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84 Chapter 3 - Bbliography Chapter 4 local institutions, committed suicide after taking drugs for two DRUG TRAFFICKING years and enduring unbearable physical suffering and social, AND CONSUMPTION IN and family pressure. Beginning in 1997, students get a "Drug CHINA: CASE STUDIES Prohibition" pamphlet with their textbooks the first day of FROM TWO CITIES IN school. GUANGDONG (1) Case 2: May 1958. The PRC’s first major drug-prohibition PROVINCE exhibition at the Beijing Military Museum focused on the tragic Deng Zhenglaï aspects of drug use and the results of worldwide drug prohibi- Introduction: tion. All members of the Chinese Communist Party politburo, headed by Jiang Zheming, attended the three-month exhibi- Background of China’s Drug Problem tion one after another.Given the highly symbolic significance of and Explanation of Research ceremonial activity in China, this suggested that the top decision makers were determined to implement drug prohibition The drug problem is a hot issue with global significance, an with decisive action. issue of deep concern in all countries. China’s experience with drug problems has followed a curious, twisted path. When the While China can be seen as merely the latest victim of the People's Republic was established about a half-century ago, recent world-wide growth in the trafficking, production and China had the world’s highest rate of drug consumption and consumption of illegal drugs, the continuing rapid growth in the largest addicted population.The new government immedi- China’s illegal drug exports poses serious dangers to other ately mobilised a quasi-military program that generally elimi- countries worldwide. nated the drug problem in China. Important matters need to be understood concerning China In recent years, while China’s policies of reform and as a newly developed centre of drug trafficking, consumption increased opening to the outside world have pushed econom- and production: ic development and improved living standards, drugs returned 1) How has this activity developed since the early as a major social problem. Various reasons are given for this, 1980s? including backward social administration and incomplete, 2) Under what conditions does drug-related crime uncoordinated social policies. occur and what significance does it have? 3) How does China’s social and economic transforma- Over the past 20 years, China became a major drug traffick- tion affect drug crime, and vice versa? ing point, then developed a huge internal drug consumption 4) How does China’s drug problem today compare with market, and now has become a major base of drug production. its historical drug problems, and with those of other countries The future of the drug problem in China is a matter of concern, today? considering the size and characteristics of China’s population, the failures of drug prohibition, and the prevalence of drug crimes. Research Method Case 1:May 1995.In Beijing’s prestigious Haidian District,the This research has been limited by the available research home of Renmin University and an area known for its first rate material and resources. In the process of sorting and reviewing cultural, educational, and high-technology establishments, a library documents, much data has proved to be not only incom- (1) In this chapter and in this report, China corre- female sophomore at the university-affiliated high school, plete but contradictory.Our limited work examining the original sponds to the People’s Republic of China. where most students are children of people who work at the studies has made it clear that this approach would require time

NEXT 85 Chapter 4 and resources beyond the capability of this project; in addition, Based on the document research, we began our investiga- some of the material is unavailable for publication or quotation. tions in Guangzhou in October 1998 and in Shenzhen in Thus,we have adjusted the research plan many times and had to October 1999. We visited government institutions related to use caution in our selections and citations from the resource drug prohibition and had deep discussions with key decision- material. makers and implementation personnel, chats with addicts currently or previously in drug-treatment programs, and direct and A major reason that the chapter could not provide essential indirect contacts with current drug users. For comparative case data and empirical discovery for relevant research is that some studies, the research group chose cities including Beijing, the of it might conflict with the restricted information given to the national capital, and the medium-sized hinterland city Chinese public. This could be seen as destabilising the present Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province in northern China. administration, and is thus unfeasible in the current political situation. This is the situation facing social science researchers in The research group wrote three reports with findings from China. the document and on-site studies and held small conferences in June 1997, August 1998 and September 1999 to evaluate the Given these limitations, the research group followed the rat- research and results. A fourth conference in June 2000 focused ified plan and process as closely as possible. After sorting and on discussing the chapter. The project coordinator, Dr. Fabre, carefully considering the relevant documents and seeking greatly helped the group during two visits to China by dis- advice from many sources, we chose as the empirical research cussing the research process and the drafting and amending of sites the cities of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong the chapter. province, and Shenzhen, the special economic zone, also in Guangdong.There were several reasons for this: The research had two main aspects: studies of the relevant documents; and on-site, empirical studies of the people and Guangdong has a special position in China's drug trade. events. Historically, the main import harbor for foreign-origin opium was in Guangdong,and the Qing dynasty launched its drug pro- The documents on drug problems that were collected and hibition campaign there. Today it is China’s largest centre of analysed include: drug trafficking and consumption. a. Government documents and policy analysis reports b. Mass-media news reports Guangdong had China’s fastest economic development c. Academic research and articles over the past 20 years of reform and increased contact with the d.Written materials for academic workshops outside world, creating the largest middle class and immigra- e. Statements and diaries by drug addicts tion populations in China. These economic and population characteristics add to the acuteness of the drug problem in The empirical studies included contacts or in-depth inter- Guangdong. views with: a. Drug addicts who are receiving treatment in camps Guangdong’s drug problem is seen as epitomizing the prob- b. Addicts in society lem in China as a whole. Thus, the Guangdong study is expect- c. Relatives of drug addicts ed to predict the tendency and direction of the problem in d. Social service personnel China in the future. e. Police personnel in drug supervision and prohibition f. Medical personnel engaged in drug analysis and Last but not least, local officials in Guangdong are among treatment the most open-minded in China, which was a great help in g. Personnel at relevant government and social investigating this sensitive problem. institutions

FORMER NEXT 86 Chapter 4 The Outline of this Chapter Report Dynasty, and taking opium became fashionable for a while in This chapter provides the results of the study. It begins with the main cities, including the capital, Beijing. Licensed opium an introduction explaining the motive and process of the houses similar to public bars existed in most of the southeast- research. The second part describes China’s historical and cur- ern harbor cities, with different qualities of opium houses cater- rent drug problems. A key concern is to establish background ing to different clienteles. for a deeper and more specific discussion of Guangdong’s problems, which constitutes the third part.This third section focuses As this situation reduced the government's customs on the two cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with analysis of income, it was often the subject of policy discussions. China’s and commentary on the sociological characteristics of drug subsequent decision to prohibit opium imports led to the con- offences and groups who take drugs. The fourth part mainly flicts with Britain that are known as the First and the Second analyses and discusses China’s drug problems in light of the Opium Wars. The opium trade’s bad reputation caused the empirical research in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and limited British East India Company to withdraw from the business, but studies of other cities. opium use was so deep-rooted that the Chinese responded by beginning to produce it domestically. Production gradually Once again, please note that restrictions in the source mate- concentrated in several border zones of Sichuan, Guizhou, rial limit the chapter to "macro-definitional" research, with case Yunnan, and Shanxi Provinces. The products were sold studies used as evidence. throughout China as "Yun Tu" (Yunnan Opium), "Chuan Tu" (Sichuan Opium) and "Shan Tu" (Shanxi Opium). Later, under the weak central government of the Republic of China, local war- Drug Problems in China: lords relied on the opium trade as a major source of military A General Survey funding, and as a means to do business. Although China was not an original source of drugs such as The Republic of China responded with a generally ineffec- opium, for various reasons the country once was the world’s tive opium prohibition campaign and administration. In the biggest consumer, and one of the largest producers, of addic- 1930s, as Japan occupied and colonised northeast China, a tive products including opium. After 1949, strong efforts by the major strategy for weakening Chinese resistance was to devel- central government basically eliminated drugs in China. Then, op opium plantations and secretly encourage opium consump- within about 10 years of the government reforms, increased tion. Japan also began to raise money by producing and selling contact with the outside world, and general economic improve- heroin, or "white flour." Some local warlords in the remote ment that began in the late 1970s, the drug problem became provinces continued planting opium to fund military expenses. again China’s most serious social problem, and a contributor to With the huge number of addicts and the offical prohibition, many other social problems. On this basis, it can be argued that opium prices soared to levels second only to precious metals. China had the most rapid rise in drug trafficking and consumption of any country in recent years, and that this experience The opium trade remained a major component of China’s most fully demonstrates the imperative menace of drugs. economy into the late 1940s. Partial statistics from that time indicate that China’s addicted population exceeded 20 million, Historical Survey about 4 - 5% of the population.Opium poppy plantings of near- Drugs have long been one of China’s most severe social ly one million hectares yielded about 15,000 tons of opium per problems. In the early 18th century, the British East India year and provided livelihoods for some 10 million peasants.The Company began to balance its huge trade deficit from imports trade also involved approximately 400 drug-processing facto- of Chinese tea, china and silk fabric by exporting opium to ries and some 360,000 professional processing and trafficking China in exchange for precious metals such as silver.This fit the personnel. Production and consumption were greatest in the luxury-loving attitude of the upper classes in the late Qing southwest provinces; addicts constituted some 25% of the pop-

FORMER NEXT 87 Chapter 4 ulation in Yunnan, 21% in Guizhou, and over 10% in Sichuan. the channels of drug production, importation, transportation, Rational people feared and opposed this. and abuse.

Drugs in China: A Survey The government of Hong Kong, a large-scale transfer site for of the Present Situation drug exports, has also mobilised many police personnel, For well known reasons, China suffered greatly from drug cracked numerous drug-dealing cases related to the Golden problems from the late 18th century until the People's Republic Triangle, and arrested many drug traffickers. Such actions have arose and took extremely strict measures against drug abuse. In greatly hampered conventional drug-trafficking routes from February 1950, the government issued its General Order the Golden Triangle. Severely Prohibiting Opium and Drugs. Soon, the Rules of Punishing Drug Pushing Criminals in the People's Republic of Under this double pressure against their production bases China were also stipulated and ratified. and trafficking routes, Golden Triangle groups began to change their strategies, shifting their attention to China. Several consid- From spring to summer 1952, the central government erations led to the adjustment of the strategy: mobilised all social factors into a mass campaign against drug a. Compared to other countries, China had relatively back- dealing and abuse. Based on nation-wide participation, coercive ward and slow methods for controlling the border. Relevant detainment, and education and propaganda, in just three years governmental organisations such as the border control and the campain achieved its goal,effectively resolving the problems customs officials lacked specialised equipment, and the officials of tens of millions of drug addicts, several hundred drug facto- were inexperienced in identifying and capturing drug smug- ries, and millions of acres of drug-planted fields. This campaign, glers. which helped create a drug-free nation from the early 50s to the late 70s, was known as the greatest Chinese war against drugs b. Undetected border-crossing is relatively easy along since the 19th century.It fundamentally eliminated drug traffick- China’s long southern border, where high mountains and dense ing and abuse in China. forests provide abundant cover;

Since the major policy changes of the late 1970s, China’s c. The ethnic minorities in southwestern China are tra- drug situation has changed dramatically. Producers in the ditionally connected with ethnic groups in drug-production "Golden Triangle," southeast Asia’s well-known drug produc- areas by friendship, kinship, shared languages and shared cus- tion, processing and distribution centre, began growing opium toms. Communication between these groups has thus been near China’s southwestern border and established transporta- convenient since ancient times. tion channels through China. Drugs also began flowing into China from the "Golden Crescent" production area. With the Furthermore, in many mountainous areas with underde- increase in cross-border drug traffic and improved social and veloped transportation and medical services, ethnic minori- economic conditions, China’s drug consumption and produc- ties retain the custom of treating human and animal diseases tion increased rapidly. with opium. They have not yet sufficiently understood the harmfulness of drug abuse, so some of them are psychologi- Establishment of the Golden Triangle Drug cally open to drug use. Passage in China Since the late 1970s, southeast Asian countries including d. China’s huge inland area and population offer great Thailand and Myanmar have conducted severe and continuous potential markets for drugs. Once drugs began entering from campaigns sponsored by the United Nations to eliminate drug the southwest, drug consumption rose in the inland production and processing bases and the lairs of drug dealers. provinces; These governments have also taken serious measures to control

FORMER NEXT 88 Chapter 4 e. On China’s extensive seacoast, the harbor cities’ fre- Currently available data (Su 1997: 505-6) indicates that the quent contact with international trade communities makes so-called "China South Corridor" for drug trafficking consists of them good potential transfer stations for drug trafficking (Su the following routes: 1997: 504 - 5). a. Golden Triangle — Ruili - Kunming — Guangzhou — In the early 1980s, Golden Triangle groups moved some of Hong Kong their drug production to northern Myanmar, close to China’s b. Golden Triangle — Kunming — east China seashore southwestern border. Partial statistics indicate that at least 30 — Taiwan medium-sized drug-production groups operated in Myanmar c. Golden Triangle — Yunnan — inland China near the Chinese border in the early 1980s. Meanwhile, transna- d. Golden Triangle — Yunnan — Shanghai — Europe, tional drug traffickers began to search for new smuggling Japan routes and new networks for drug trafficking in Yunnan’s border areas. Establishment of the Golden Crescent Drug Trafficking Passage Drug traffickers have established many underground trade During the 1980s, a new centre for drug production, collec- routes, creating a drug trafficking network in Guogan, tion, and distribution, known as the "Golden Crescent," arose Chonggang, Jinzhulin, Bangxian, Menggu, Banpo, Bangzhong, along China’s western border. This resulted from factors includ- Kapo, Damenglong, and other places outside the southern bor- ing the Afghan war, which created a refugee society along the ders of Linchang, Baoshan, and Dehong prefectures in Yunnan. Afghan and Pakistani borders; Central Asia’s economic difficul- Taking advantage of cross-border trade, they have smuggled ties following the collapse of the Soviet Union; and the devel- huge amounts of drugs into western Yunnan. Through areas opment of ethnic religious forces. such as Baoshan, Dali, and Linchan, drugs came into the municipalities of Kunming and Guangzhou, and thence to inland As with the Golden Triangle drug traffic, China’s dramatic China, Hong Kong and Macao, and on to international markets. trade increase with Xinjiang and Tibet brought an increase in Chinese criminals merged with international drug traffickers in drug smuggling from the Golden Crescent. This led to the for- smuggling, selling, and transporting. Drugs smuggled from the mation of the "North China" drug-trafficking channel, with two Golden Triangle into Yunnan thus flowed to other parts of China main passages: and, via Guangdong and Hong Kong, to the rest of the world. a. Golden Crescent — Lhasa — Chengdu — internal Reportedly, drug smugglers could be found almost daily in China the long-distance buses traveling from Ruili to Kunming and b. Golden Crescent — Ulumuqi — Lanzhou — Xi'an — the airplanes flying from Kunming to other Chinese cities. One north China cities typical method involves offering handsome payment to women 15 to 25 years old to act as couriers. Under a profes- As this channel lies in a sparsely populated area, traffickers sional drug trafficker’s guidance, a young woman swallows 400 rely mainly on highway transportation, which is difficult to - 500 grams of drugs encased in rubber or plastic, then flies inspect. Most of this is conducted by the local minorities, whose from Kunming to other areas of China under the pretext of cross-border religious and kinship ties facilitate undetected ille- seeking a job. Upon arrival, she takes a laxative to deliver the gal border crossings.One difference from the south China chan- drugs. Due to the backwardness of the airport inspection nel is the north China channel’s focus on organised distribution instrument the inspectors completely rely on experience to in northern Chinese cities such as Beijing and Tianjin. detect the couriers. Some have been arrested, but most escape Reportedly, the Hui minority residence area of Sanjiaji in Gansu detection. Province is a collection and distribution centre for drugs in northwest China, and urban drug-trafficking centres are often

FORMER NEXT 89 Chapter 4 in neighborhoods with large populations of people from planting of opium poppy spread from border areas to internal Xinjiang, such as Weigongcun in Beijing and Sanyuanli in areas, and from remote areas to suburbs of big cities. Most Guangzhou. provinces now report illegal plantings of opium poppy. Public Security Ministry statistics indicate that in 1993 it was found in From Drug Trafficking to Drug Consumption about one-third of Shanghai’s suburban towns and villages, and Production and some 100,000 plants were destroyed. Rampant drug trafficking also increases local drug sales. As dealers sell huge amounts of drugs where the trafficking chan- The main purpose of these plantings is to process the nels pass through China, drug addiction is reappearing after opium, which makes it more convenient and secure for storage being eliminated for many years.Data from the 1980s shows that and transportation. Thus the increase in planting has brought in many places the trafficking was detected before local drug an increase in underground drug-processing factories. These abuse began to rise. For instance, the first drug-trafficking case factories are set up by Chinese criminals as well as foreign was found in 1983, and the first drug taking was discovered in nationals, who produce for export. It is worth noting that the 1987. This leads to the conclusion that the penetration of exter- foreign criminals often operate these under the guise produc- nal drug trafficking groups was the key reason that drug abuse ing legal products. Many local governments, eager for econom- reappeared in China. Supporting this conclusion from the oppo- ic development and unable to understand the technologies of site side, addicts mainly use heroin and opium, which is consis- external investors, do not discover these crimes in time. tent with the drug sources outside China. Case 1: from December 1994 to February 1995, public secu- The spread of drug trafficking in China created a drug con- rity organisations in Fujian, Guangdong, and Beijing together sumption market, with a rapid, nation-wide increase in addic- tracked down a huge transnational operation producing and tion. In the 1980s, drug-abuse problems were reported by 1600 selling borneol. It was run like "processing imported material (53 %) of China’s 3000 county-level administration units. In the and selling on spot." 1990s, 70 % of the counties and cities reported drug problems. At the same time,the proportion of juveniles among the addict- Case 2: In December 1996, public security organisations in ed has been steadily rising. Guangdong tracked down criminals who used funds, materials, and technologies from abroad to establish some seven drug- The dramatic increase in drug consumption greatly stimu- processing bases in China. Seven suspects were arrested and lated production, leading to quick development of opium 317.95 kilograms of borneol seised. (Jiang 1998: 29-30). poppy and drug production. The illegal private planting of opium poppies first emerged in the sparsely populated, Case 3: In May 1997, Guangzhou authorities arrested a large remote provinces and the junctions of different administration group of drug producers, seising 218 kilograms of borneol and areas, and is quickly spreading into bigger areas.Though every over 3 million RMB. Also, the group reportedly spent roughly local authority prohibits drug production, the control is not 20,000,000 RMB in drug profits to buy 30 houses. (Ibid.) powerful enough, so the planting of opium poppy is large- scale and extensive. Along with the introduction of modern Case 4: In 1997, Liao Mingzhe, a Taiwanese businessman, planting techniques, such as plastic thin-coating of earth and came to the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong and set the use of growing sheds, so the growing and harvesting peri- up some factories, then moved to Nanhai municipality in ods for poppy differ from the traditional periods, with continu- Guangdong and set up a joint-venture agricultural develop- ally increasing covert capabilities against attempts to discover ment company. A county vice-governor from Jianghua of and destroy the crops. Statistics indicate that more than 400 Hunan, who was serving his official training position in Nanhai, mu of opium poppies were destroyed in Yunnan Province in invited Liao to invest in his county.Liao went there,took 600 mu 1989, nearly 30 times as much as in 1988. In the late 1990s, the of fields under a 30-year lease, and later leased 1,800 mu of tea-

FORMER NEXT 90 Chapter 4 oil tree fields through other channels. In the name of "land-util- ures understate the reality. Guangdong is the hotbed of China’s ity exploration," he established secret borneol production and new economic experiment, and it is widely acknowledged that processing bases, producing 200 kilograms and 58 kilograms of economic development in recent years, with its huge increases borneol on the two pieces of land respectively, for a profit of in factories and enterprises, urbanisation of rural areas, and some 1,330,000 RMB. (Source: Qilu Evening Post, August 26th, 1998). immigration of workers from other provinces, has raised the population density, total population, urban population, and Case 5: In 1989, Guangdong drug dealer Liao Zhiming and working population far beyond the official figures. his coordinator, Li Qiuping of Hong Kong, set up a borneol factory in Jiangmen, Guangdong. They exported the products to Guangdong a particularly convenient communication net- Shanghai, Fujian, and Shenzhen, and from there to foreign work with other countries, including sea lanes, continental countries.In two years,they produced and exported some 1,000 routes, and river transportation. Over the 2000 years from the kilograms of borneol. In 1991, Li Qiuping increased his invest- Qin to the Qing dynasties, Guangdong was always the leading ment and set up a second borneol factory in Dongguan city, province in international trade. The "Silk Way" — the world’s Guangdong. longest sea lane until the 16th century — led from Guangdong through the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and Basra to the subequatorial shores of East Africa. From the early Ming Drug Problems in Guangdong through the late Qing periods, Guangdong was the only area of Province China allowed to conduct foreign trade. This foreign contact gave another feature to the Guangdong General Survey population: from the past to the present, more people have emigrated from Guangdong than any other province in China. Background Official data indicate that overseas Chinese from Guangdong Guangdong lies in southernmost mainland China, with the and their offspring number some 5 million in over 100 countries sea to the south. It has the longest seacoast of among China’s and regions in the world, or about 70% of all overseas Chinese. provinces, totaling 3368 km, with countless islands. It borders Close to Guangdong, in Hong Kong and Macao, about 5 million on Jiangxi and Hunan provinces on the north,Fujian province to people have forefathers from Guangdong.With the Chinese tra- the northeast, and Guangxi Zhuang Nationality Autonomous ditions valuing kinship, this large-scale emigration promotes Region on the west.The terrain is a mixture of mountains, plains further foreign exchange, emigration and contact. and hills, generally high in the north and low in the south. The rivers flow south; major ones include the Zhujiang, Ganjiang China's reform and open policy favored dramatic economic and Jianjiang. The river system consisting of the Zhujiang, development in Guangdong due to its special geography, pop- China’s third-longest river at 2122 km, plus its three major tribu- ulation, and, particularly, its close ties with overseas Chinese. taries, the Xijiang, Dongjiang and Beijiang, provide transporta- After becoming China’s leader in retail volume in 1984, tion connections with the neighboring provinces. Guangdong has consistently led in economic indicators such as export trade, foreign capital, real-estate investment, GDP and Official data indicate that Guangdong is China’s most dense- local tax income. ly populated province and its fifth most populous. In 1998, official figures put the population density at 400 people per square km and the total population at 71 million, or about 5.7% of China’s total. Government statistics said that in 1998, 68.8% lived in agricultural areas, and employed persons number some 37.5 million, about 52.7% of the population. However, these fig-

FORMER NEXT 91 Chapter 4 Table 1: gling of ordinary goods, and some officials’ participation in Major Economic Development Indicators in Guangdong smuggling,induced by huge bribes and self-interest.These geo- 1. Population and labour unit: ten thousand graphic, demographic and ideological reasons lead drug 1980 1990 1998 1981-1990 1991-1995 groups from such areas as the Golden Triangle, Hong Kong, and annual increase rate annual increase rate Macao to choose Guangdong as a port for drug exports. population 5227.67 6246.32 7115.65 1.8 1.7 employed 2367.78 3118.10 3746.90 2.8 2.6 Guangdong is the point of confluence in China for drug traf- details: ficking routes from both the Golden Triangle and Golden state owned 400.19 528.13 544.46 2.8 0.80 Crescent production areas, leading to Hong Kong and the world collective 163.43 2.7.62 169.02 2.4 0.5 market. The Golden Triangle trafficking channel developed foreign 0 117.68 543.30 11.8 85.1 before the Golden Crescent channel, but the quantities and char- rural 1793.20 2264.67 2507.56 2.4 1.1 acteristics of the two seem roughly equal, based on the amounts 2. Economic volume unit: billion yuan of drugs captured in China. One exception: the Golden Triangle groups seem to have a larger share of the export trade from 1980 1990 1998 1981-1990 1991-1995 annual increase rate annual increase rate Guangdong. One report says that in 1995, when north Myanmar industry & agriculture 31.623 269.483 1281.08 17.0 27.9 fell into the turmoil of war, much drugs remained in warehouses industry 23.435 102.037 1188.54 - - awaiting sale.Some of these drugs (especially heroin) were trans-

details: ferred to China in large quantities (tens to hundreds of kilograms) light 14.75 102.037 795.20 21.3 29.8 for export. Without doubt, Guangdong is an established drug heavy 8.676 41.043 354.8 16.6 37.5 exporting port for international drug traffickers.

details: China’s drug statistics tell a consistent story of rising drug state-owned 14.792 50.125 124.314 28.9 8.0 trafficking, particularly after the middle 1990s. Chinese officials, collective 6.479 38.044 201.535 12.9 22.3 who categorise cases involving over 1,000 grams as "impor- foreign 0 31.421 596.315 51.7 53.8 tant," tracked down 1,000 cases of "most serious drug traffic" 3.Workers' wage and living standard from 1987 to 1990, with arrests of 2,500 drug smugglers from 1980 1990 1998 1981-1990 1991-1995 both China and overseas, and seisures of 400 kilograms of hero- annual increase rate annual increase rate in and 1,400 kilograms of opium and marijuana. Public security state-owned annual wage 82.8 300 1054.5 13.7 23.3 organisations in Guangdong Province tracked down five cases collective annual wage 69.1 121.6 678.2 13.8 20.6 of smuggling more than 10 kilograms, and in some cases hun- per person usable income for urban family 47.257 230.315 884 17.2 26.3 dreds of kilograms, of heroin in 1995. By the first half of 1996, per person pure eight similar cases were solved and more remained under income for rural family 27.437 104.303 352.7 13.2 20.9 investigation. The "9601" case involved 600 kilograms of drugs, Economic development in Guangdong brought abrupt and drug seisures in the first half of 1996 were triple those changes in economic and employment structures and income seised in all of 1995. In 1996, a record year for volume of drug level, significantly influencing the local people’s behavior and seisures, officials cracked 3,200 drug cases (75 % of them large- living patterns, and fostering drug crimes. scale trafficking cases), arrested 4,000 foreign nationals, and seised over 1,000 kilograms of heroin(2). Guangdong’s Position as a Drug Transfer Site As indicated above in the geographic and demographic In Guangdong, the channels and quantities of drug traffick- notes, Guangdong has the essential conditions for drug trafficking have grown rapidly. Here, the phenomena of multiple entry (2) "New Criminal Code and drug Offence", edited by ing. Drug trafficking is radically stimulated by the relaxed policy and overall penetration resulted in rapid growth of drug traffic. Jiang Zhujun,Xi’yuan Publishing House,1998,p.28. environment, lax local governmental attitudes toward smug-

FORMER NEXT 92 Chapter 4 Guangdong’s drug traffic has become more and more organ- routes frequently change, and are increasingly difficult to ised for the past few years.Major drug crimes are mostly the work detect. Most drug dealers use the methods of "separation of of specialised groups who are well organised and specialised in salesmen and goods" and "division of drug profits" to prevent their division of labor, with coordination among criminals inside infiltration, wiretapping and investigation, making it more diffi- and outside China. Some receive direct instructions from chiefs cult for police to detect their activities. "Militarised" refers to the abroad.They have set up a long-term basis for business, with sta- possession of weapons and ammunition procured by smug- ble supply-demand relationships, consistent lines for traffic, pro- gling or from underground factories. This is extremely rare in cessing, and retailing, and secret contact points for purchasing, China,where private ownership of weapons is prohibited.This is storing, and transferring drugs. Some trafficking groups even set very different from countries where drug dealing groups com- up legitimate companies along the border to disguise the drug monly use deadly weapons. traffic. These companies tend to form legal relationships with customs at the border, declaring imports and exports such as The Root Causes of this Situation cars to carry the drugs. They make good use of advanced com- First, drug-producing and trafficking groups outside China munication facilities and direct the transfer of drugs from remote are directly involved in organising drug-related crime,providing sites, including foreign areas. They handle orders and settle a great deal of capital and experience.Most large-volume,cross- accounts through channels including underground private border movements of drugs are conducted by professional banks. In areas of Guangdong, some professional and family groups characterised by elaborate planning, division of labor, organisations go abroad to purchase drugs directly,then transfer, direct control by foreign chiefs, long-term strategies, and fixed process, and wholesale the drugs in China. Such activities have supply and sale networks, forming integrated systems for sup- proved difficult to detect by conventional methods. ply, transport, processing and sales. They have covert meeting places for purchases,storage and transfer;some chief drug deal- In recent years, drug traffickers in Guangdong have become ers go to border areas to open shops or companies as covers for extremely flexible in their trafficking means and routes. To pre- drug dealing, formally apply to customs at entry ports, then vent external penetration and police investigation, they use secretly ship drugs hidden in vehicles and other articles to methods such as separating salesmen from goods and dividing Guangdong from abroad. These drug dealers fully exploit drug profits. Some transfer their products from border areas advanced telecommunication equipment to control operations into the inland first, then to places such as Guangzhou. Drugs from abroad or from distant areas in China.Orders and account- can be smuggled out of China via Shenzhen and Zhuhai in vehi- settling are all completed in China. Drug-related accounts are cles or through sea routes from coastal cities such as Shenzhen, settled and the money is laundered through the underground Huizhou, Shantou, Zhuhai, or Shanwei(3). banking system and some related financial institutions(4).

General Characteristics of Drug Crimes in Secondly, Guangdong’s native drug-dealing groups take Guangdong advantage of the closeness of Hong Kong and Macao, imitating Compared with other areas, the drug crimes in Guangdong "police-criminal movies" and criminal stories. Titles and posi- province are noticeably well-organised, professionalised and tions of various figures in the drug-dealing groups virtually mir- militarised. ror their fictional counterparts in Hong Kong movies. The rapid economic development and historical tradition of contact with The term "well-organised" refers to the establishment of the outside world give Guangdong’s native drug-dealing rather stable organisations with stratified structures and defi- groups capital and connections with external criminals. Those nite leaders, followers, core members and peripheral members. groups even go abroad to purchase drug material directly, then (3) Criminal Detective Division, Guangdond Public Security Bureau, Guangdong Drug-related Crimes- "Professionalised" to specialisation among the various mem- transfer, process and sell the drugs.They are too powerful to be Destructive attack,Serious Situation. bers in matters such as sales, transportation, products, and controlled by ordinary measures. (4) Ibid. regions. The methods are complicated: trafficking means and

FORMER NEXT 93 Chapter 4 Thirdly,drug-dealing groups often have intermingled geographic and kinship relations.The groups in Guangdong gen- b) More and more young addicts are being detected erally occupy three categories: Guangdong-Hong Kong Currently,6.6% of addicts are 16 to 18 years old;3.8% are over groups, Xinjiang Muslim groups, and Northeast-Northern 18; 40.8% of drug addicts first took drugs under the age of 18. China groups. In the latter groups, particularly, the leaders and core members often come from the same family or town- c) Addiction is more common among the less-educated ship, so many drug dealing groups are family-oriented or Among current drug addicts 5.5% are illiterate, 21.3% are pri- clan-like. The traditional Chinese emphasis on kinship and mary school graduates, 59.4% are secondary school graduates, friendship exerts special influence in forming and holding 12% are high school graduates, and 1.1% are college graduates. together these groups. d) Drug use is more common among unemployed and General Characteristics of Drug Consumption unstable employees Compared to other provinces and municipalities,drug con- Among current drug addicts, 56.6% are awaiting jobs; 4.4% sumption has increased fastest in Guangdong, with the num- are occasional workers; 25.5% are self-employed; 7.7% are farm- bers of addicts detected by security forces increasing almost ers; and 5.5% are employees in state-owned and collective exponentially in recent years. In the early 1980s, addicts were enterprises. Among those awaiting jobs, 30.2% of the self- only occasionally found, but in the late 1980s and especially in described unemployed and unstable employees are actually the 1990s the numbers rose dramatically. The number of work in prostitution and similar service industries. The rest are detected addicts tripled from 1989 to 1990, and the number in mostly landless peasants who sold their lands for huge the first half of 1991 was triple that of the same period in 1990. amounts of money. Drug taking has spread over another 18 municipalities.Even in the poorest areas, such as Heyuan municipality, as many as e) Drug use is more common among the unmarried 100 drug addicts were found. Among current drug addicts, 81.7% are unmarried and 18.3% are married. Among the married addicts, 37.5% are Public security data show 1,194 addicts were tracked down divorced, 20.9% are separated females, and the remainder await in 1990 in Guangdong. In 1991, the number rose to 5,196, 3.3 the resolution of marital disputes. times as many as in 1990. In 1992, the number rose 57% to 8,154 persons. In 1993, it increased to 15,559, 91% over the f) The types of drugs and means of consumption vary previous year. In 1994, the number rose 70% to 27,325. In just greatly over a month, from late April to early June 1995, some 18,000 Heroin addicts are 77.7% of all addicts. Among them, 28.8 % addicts were tracked down(5). It is to be assumed that these also consume other drugs such as cannabis sativa, borneol, data understate the actual drug-taking population. cocaine, morphine, opium, and other sedatives. Intravenous injection is used by 52.6% of addicts; next most common is tin- Investigations of the drug-taking population foil heating inhaling (also called "zhuilong"); 49.4% use both in Guangdong show the following characteristics: intravenous injection and other methods to take drugs. a) The number of female addicts in labor reform camps has increased sharply. g) Addicts consume large and costly quantities of drugs The Sanshui Labor Reform Camp reports increasing propor- Most drug addicts under police investigation consume one tions of female internees over the past few years, since the or more grams of drug per day; 45.5% take drugs three times a People's Congress issued "The Regulations of Prohibition of day; 37.1% consume four times per day; 56.7% spend over Drug Taking".In 1992,female addicts constituted 7.39% of those 100,000 RMB on drugs per year; 14.4% spend earnings from (5) Song Xiaoming, "Psychological Analysis and receiving labor reform. The female share rose to 12% in 1993, drug dealings on drugs; 28.3% rely on prostitution; and 10 % Treatment to the drug Takers in Guangdong Province". 25% in 1994, 50% in 1995, 76.6% in July 1997. rely on stealing, deception, and robbery. Others rely on legiti-

FORMER NEXT 94 Chapter 4 mate sources of income to pay for drugs, but may in the future The Drug Consumption Situation use the above methods to "earn" money for drugs. in Guangzhou City

h) Most addicts have long histories of drug use and tend The Overall Situation in Guangzhou to remain habitual addicts despite attempts to quit. The general situation in Guangzhou city has three main fea- Statistics indicate that 27.7% of addicts have been using tures pertaining to this research. First, it is the largest city in the drugs for one to two years; 60.3% for over three years; 30.5% province with the fastest economic development over the past tried twice to stop taking drugs, either voluntarily, by force, or 20 years. Thus, Guangzhou has the general problems common through labor reform; 12.7% tried three times voluntarily to in areas of rapid economic development worldwide, such as quit, and 24.4% tried four or more times. changes in living patterns due to higher income and the emergence of pleasure-seeking luxurious living places; widening i) After quitting drugs, many become addicted again gaps in economic development and income between the sub- quickly. urb and downtown,drawing people to the downtown;marginal According to the investigation questionnaire and archive living conditions for some people; governmental bureaucracy survey, 82.2% of drug addicts were involved in efforts to give and corruption; and shortages and corruption of police. All of up drugs; 77.4% returned to the habit within three months these conditions promote ordinary (i.e., non-drug) crime. These (among these, 12.8% within a week, 20.2% within 15 days; problems are especially manifest in Guangzhou because its 18.2% within a month; 14.4% within 2 months; 12.2% within 3 municipal power has been enlarged under the government pol- months); 16.2% resumed taking drugs within four to six icy that central cities should help promote development in months; and only 6% within one to two years. Findings indi- peripheral areas. cate that 96.3% of those who voluntarily tried to give up drugs resumed after stopping for a period; 88.5% of those forced to Secondly, historical and current factors make Guangzhou give up drugs returned to their old routines; and 66.1% of the most important hub of sea and land communications and those who received labor reform resumed the habit. overseas access in South China.

j) Many drug addicts become ill from drug taking and Over the 2000 years from the Qin and Han dynasties to the may therefore become the "high-risk group" for transmit- Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangzhou was always the most ting HIV and AIDS. important port for foreign trade, and the starting point of the According to the investigation questionnaire, 72.6% of "Silk Way" sea route. Guangzhou was known worldwide as a female addicts in labor reform had marital sexual experience major port in the eastern hemisphere, and was the first in China and 30.2% were involved in sex-related service, prostitution, to establish the foreign-trade institution known as "shiboshi." and occasional homosexual acts. Surveys by medical organisa- From the Ming to the Qing dynasties, Guangzhou had special tions show 87.6% of female addicts carrying sexually transmit- status as China’s only foreign-trade port.The Opium War ended ted diseases. A recent survey on sex-related diseases suggests Guangzhou's position as the only foreign-trade harbor.After the that 5.36% of drug addicts carry syphilis, 1.62% higher than the founding of the People's Republic of China by the Communist high-risk group in society, and nearly 17 times higher than the Party in 1949, Guangzhou was the mainland’s only window for 0.3% rate in a labor reform camp checked in 1988(6). trade with foreign countries (through means such as the Guangzhou Trade Fair) and China’s only continental port to While the preceding is a summary of the overall situation in trade with the outside world (through Hong Kong). With the Guangdong, conditions may vary from city to city. Guangzhou reform and open policy, Guangzhou's position for foreign trade (6) "Analysis to the female drug addicts under labor and Shenzhen, the cities selected for this research, have higher became more important. Its huge volume and variety of reform in Guangdong", by Cheng Xikui, Juvenile levels of both economic development and drug crime than imports and exports now provide many opportunities for drug Crime Study, 2-3, 1997. most other cities in Guangdong. smuggling.

FORMER NEXT 95 Chapter 4 Third, Guangzhou is the city, and Guangdong the province, places such as disco halls; the third network consists of profes- with the most overseas Chinese. Most overseas Chinese from sional, large-scale drug trafficking and wholesaling. Guangzhou live in Hong Kong and the neighboring areas. During traditional Chinese festivals, a million visitors from Hong Research indicates that 165 drug-related crimes were Kong often come to travel and visit relatives in Guangzhou. tracked down in 1990. Among these, 114 were rated as big Under the policy of absorbing foreign capital in China, the in- cases, with 68,382 grams of drugs seised and 302 persons flowing capital in Guangzhou and Guangdong mainly came arrested. In 1994, 1,043 drug related crimes were tracked down. from overseas Chinese in Hong Kong, who run many enterpris- Among these, 605 were rated as big cases, with 27,455 grams of es for "san lai yi bu" (processing foreign material, patterns and drugs seised and 1,770 persons arrested.Over these three years, incomplete products and complementary trade) in Guangzhou, drug crime multiplied by a factor of 6.32, big cases by a factor of and thus obtained permanent residence in both Hong Kong 5.7, and drug trafficking by a factor of 5.86.The average growth and Guangzhou, with general vehicle licenses for both cities. rate was 200% per year(7). This creates a special situation of frequent, large-volume personnel, material, and capital flows between Hong Kong and Drug Consumption in Guangzhou Guangzhou. Even more noticeable is Guangzhou’s rising drug consumption. The increasing number of addicts dramatically raises These three factors caused Guangzhou to become a com- demand for drugs, driving up prices, and stimulating more munication and marketing hub for drug trafficking, linking imports. At the same time, drug addicts are often the personnel China’s drug-dealing channels with foreign markets. base for drug trafficking.

Drug-related cases and related investigations in recent years Guangzhou’s drug-taking problem has the following charac- indicate that Guangzhou is a hub of drug trafficking and a cen- teristics: tral market for domestic and foreign drug products. Both The city has fine conditions for drug traffic, with broad and Chinese and foreign drug dealers normally take the Golden readily mobilised social connections, easy access to communi- Triangle as their base, smuggling large quantities of drugs cation facilities, numerous joint-venture companies, and fre- through Yunnan,transferring them to Guangzhou,then to Hong quent,large-volume,highly varied imports and exports that can Kong and Macao, and finally to Western Europe and North disguise movements of drugs. Such factors have made America. This trafficking route is rather stable, and Guangzhou Guangzhou a critical site for struggles among drug-dealing plays an important part in it.Chief drug dealers from both China groups and a difficult place to prevent drug-taking. and abroad can be found in Guangzhou.Also,some of the drugs moving through Guangzhou are sold in China's hinterland. A a) Rapid increase of drug addicts huge proportion of the drugs trafficked to middle-south China, In the early 1980s, most of the addicts detected were over- eastern China, northern China and northeast China come from seas Chinese carrying drugs for their own use while returning to Guangzhou. Guangzhou is the centre and collecting and dis- visit and travel. Few citizens of Guangzhou were found taking tributing place of China’s domestic drug market. drugs. From the mid-80s onward, more and more local drug addicts appeared. Drug trafficking and use in Guangzhou occurs in three main networks: for retail heroin sales, one network consists of the In 1990, 816 addicts were tracked down in Guangzhou city. Sanyuanli area (inhabited by natives of Xinjiang) as the origin, The number rose to 2,674 in 1991 (increasing by a factor of 2.3); and the drug-pushing groups at street stands, especially near 4,242 in 1992 (a factor 1.5); 5,095 in 1993 (a factor of 1.2); 7,126 (7) The drug-related crime situation and its counter- Guangzhou Station, as the main body; a second retail network in 1994 (a factor of 1.4); and 7,886 in 1995 (a factor of 1.1). From measures in Guangzhou,by Zhang Zuomin,Juvenile consists of natives who provide "yao tou wan" (head shaking 1990 to 1995, the number of drug addicts detected in Study, 1996, 4, p.24. piles) imported from Hong Kong to juveniles in recreation Guangzhou increased by a factor of 9.66.

FORMER NEXT 96 Chapter 4 b) A high rate of juvenile addiction No female drug addict was found in a district in Guangzhou Among the 7,126 drug addicts captured in 1994 in before 1989; 19 were seised in 1990, and in the first half of 1991 Guangzhou, 3,134 or 44.1% were below the age of 25. Among 59 were seised. Over 80% were youth. the 7,906 addicts captured in the first quarter of 1995, 3,443 or 43.5% were youth. A survey in Guangzhou city in April 1995 In recent years, the proportion of drug addicts among showed 7,886 addicts, 3,571 or 45.3% of them youths. A survey females under labor reform has increased. In 1992, it was 7.39%; of 754 addicts receiving treatment in stopping-drug-taking in 1993, 12%; in 1994, 25%; in 1995, 50%; by July 1996, it was as camps showed 61.5% were youth. These surveys conducted at much as 76.6%. Among these, 6.6 % were between the ages of different times and places and among different groups indicate 16 and 18; 68.3% were 18 to 25.These groups together make up that youth are approximately 50% of the drug-taking popula- 74.9% of all female drug addicts. tion(8). d) Ways of drug taking Moreover, a survey in Guangdong Province in 1995 showed Most of the 116 young drug addicts surveyed took heroin. juvenile drug addicts accounting for 46.4% of the drug-taking Among them, 43.1% use intravenous injection, taking about population in Guangzhou. In Guangzhou Municipality’s Fanyu one gram of heroin per day. Some took in heroin; some both City and Baiyun District, youth drug addicts were 64.3% and took in heroin and heroin injection; 44.8% took heroin with one 57%, respectively, of the addicted populations. From 1993 to other drug. June 1995, in Chatou Curing Drug Taking Habit Institute in Guangzhou, 493 youth drug addicts voluntarily received treat- Most of the young drug addicts tracked down in Guangzhou ment, the youngest under age 10, and youths were 67% of in 1994 took drugs in fixed places with groups. In December those at the facility. Among addicts seised in Shenzhen, 69% 1994, public security officers seised seven boy and girl addicts were under 25. At Shenzhen Stopping Drug Taking Institute, taking drugs together. In March 1996, a shelter for drug addicts 91.4% of those receiving treatments were under 25. was tracked down and some 45 addicts were arrested on the spot; 23 or 51% were youngsters. Among young addicts seised Guangzhou public security organisations reported tracking in Shenzhen in 1993, 82.6% took drugs in groups(9). down 781 young drug addicts in 1990.The number rose 69% to 1,320 in 1991; 32.2% to 1,745 in 1992; 33.9% to 2,337 in 1993; Among the 7,126 drug addicts seised in Guangzhou in 1994, 34.7% to 3,157 in 1994; and 30.3% to 44,100 in 1995. From 1990 2,220 (32.2%) took drugs in hotels and restaurants; 2,003 (27%) to 1995 the number rose 424.96%,an average of 40.4% per year. in residential areas; and 1,537 (21.5%) in rented rooms or small restaurants beside roads(10). In 1995, a large-scale survey by the Guangzhou municipal government in four districts showed 7,886 drug addicts.Among Evidently, since 1992, drug taking activity has taken place them,3,571 or 45.3% were under age 25;3,730 persons or 47.2% more and more in public locations, from individual to groups of were 26 and 35. Together, these two age groups were as much three to five persons, such as in balling hall, bars and restau- as 92.6% of the drug-taking population. Among them, six were rants, the addicts have fixed places to take drug collectively(11). (8) The drug-related crime situation and its countermeasures in Guangzhou,by Zhang Zuomin,Juvenile under the age of 14. In certain areas, young drug addicts were Study, 1996, 4, p.24. up to 97% of the drug-taking population. The highest rate was Addicts often take drugs collectively in fixed places. (9) "China’s drug problem and its countermeasures" 99.5%,all but two of 406 seised drug addicts under 35 years old. Evidently, drug-taking since 1992 has occurred more and more by Guo Xiang, Juvenile Crime Study, 1997 : 11-12. in public locations such as balling halls, bars and restaurants, by (10) "The drug-related crime situation and its coun- c) Serious problems with female drug addicts individuals and groups of up to five persons. termeasures in Guangzhou", by Zhang Zuomin, Juvenile Study, 1996, 4, p.24. Statistics from a stopping-drug-taking institute in (11) "White plague spreads in Guangdong province", Guangzhou show the number of female drug addicts increasing by Fang Ren,Macao Daily,June 21,1992. by a factor of 41.7 in five years, from 20 in 1989 to 834 in 1994.

FORMER NEXT 97 Chapter 4 e) Links between drug-taking and other crimes Most young addicts have less than a secondary education. Of the 216 drug-related defendants found guilty in 1990, Among the 7,886 drug addicts under the "1995 statistic" pro- 1991, and 1992 at the Intermediate Level People's Court in gram in Guangzhou, 7,141 or 90.6% were below secondary Guangzhou, 119 or 55.1% had prior convictions for crimes such school level; only 745 or 9.4% were at high school level.The fact as theft and gambling(12). that 90% drug addicts were below the age of 35 could indicate that 90% of young drug addicts were also below secondary Among the 1,320 young criminals convicted in a Guangzhou education level. district in 1994, 1,080 (80 %) said they committed crimes due to the effects of drugs. More drug addicts are becoming drug deal- g) Occupational characteristics ers. In 1994, public security organisations tracked down 1,770 Occupations listed for the 7,126 drug addicts seised in 1994 drug dealers; 40.9% were youngsters, the youngest age 12. Most in Guangzhou were the following: were "addicts dependent on dealing" (yifan yangxi). All the convicted members of a young theft group tracked down in Guangzhou in April 1996 were drug addicts. Beginning in late 1995, they committed 12 crimes within a few months, including one theft of assets worth up to 100,000 RMB, and spent most of the money on drugs. employees of governmental apparatus and others: 486 persons, or 7,14%(15).

It is estimated that each young drug addict spends tens of The 116 young drug addicts under age 25 in Guangzhou thousands of yuan on drugs per year, and that China’s young Labor Reform and Stopping Drug Taking Camp included 46.6% addicts spend up to 10 billion yuan per year(13). unemployed, 35.3% self-employed, and 18.1% employed. A 1995 study of 7,886 drug addicts in Guangzhou illustrates In 1994,1,320 young offenders were tracked down in Baiyun the occupational characteristics of drug taking groups: District in Guangzhou: 1,080 (81.8%) were induced to commit crimes by taking drugs. Of the 1,229 drug addicts tracked down Table 2: in Fanyu City under Guangzhou Municipality in 1994 and 1995, The occupational analysis of 7,886 drug addicts in 1995 695 (56.6%) had committed other crimes. Among the 150 crim- in Guangzhou* inals tracked down in the first quarter of 1995 in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, 91 (60.6%) were drug addicts. Some 80% of the occupation number percentage female drug addicts arrested in Guangzhou in recent years had unemployed 4,174 52.9 experience in prostitution(14). farmer 2,962 37.6 self-employed 574 7.3 employed 187 2.4 (12) "Alert ! Malicious White Plague under the Sun-a These data indicate that drug use is an important factor in perspective on drug-related crimes in Guangzhou" by other criminal offences. students 43 0.5 Ge Qizeng, People’Court Newspaper, March 7, 1994. It is also evident that drug dealing has become organised; cadres (officials) 2 0.03 (13) "China’s drug problem and its countermeasure" by Guo Xiang, Juvenile Crime Study, 1997 :11-12. 60% of those convicted by Guangzhou Intermediate People's *The data indicate that over half the addicts were unemployed and nearly 40 % (14) "The drug-related crime situation and its coun- Court in 1997 were involved in organised crime. were farmers; these two groups were some 90 % of the total number(16). termeasures in Guangzhou", by Zhang Zuomin, Juvenile Study, 1996, 4, p.24. f) The educational level of drug addicts (15) Ibid. Generally speaking, drug addicts have little education: (16) Guangzhou juvenile crime study association, "Completion to the Juvenile Drug Stopping in 80.1% the 7,126 addicts seised in 1995 in Guangzhou, and 98% Guangzhou" ,by Zhang Zuomin,Juvenile Crime Study, of the 1,000 addicts seised in Zengcheng city, Guangzhou 1997:1:12. Municipality, had less than a secondary education.

FORMER NEXT 98 Chapter 4 Drug Problems in Shenzhen Shenzhen’s economy has grown miraculously since it became Special Economic Zone a special economic zone in 1980. With annual growth averaging 49.6%, by 1998 Shenzhen had produced general industrial prod- Characteristics of Shenzhen Special ucts worth approximately 185 billion yuan (present price),ranking Economic Zone fifth among China’s cities. The most important component of In 1953, when Shenzhen became Bao'an county’s adminis- growth was industrial activity, which contributed 55% of the total. tration city, it was a small town of 10,000. Change began in Shenzhen established an industrial system of 35 lines, dominated February 1979, when China's state department issued Order 38 by electronics and telecommunication facilities, and also includ- establishing Shenzhen and its peripheral area as an exclusive ing power production, food processing, garments and pharma- zone to provide agricultural and side-line products and tourist ceuticals. resources for Hong Kong.In March 1979,Bao'an county was designated Shenzhen city; in November 1979, Shenzhen was raised The main body of Shenzhen’s industry consists of "Sanzi," to a prefecture-level city, directly controlled by the provincial i.e., foreign capital, joint-venture and cooperative enterprises. In government. 1998, Sanzi products were valued at some 127 billion yuan (in 1990 yuan), 76.7% of Shenzhen’s total industrial output. By the The policies of reform and opening to the outside world led end of 1998,investors from 65 countries and regions had invest- to further change. In May 1980 the Chinese Communist Party ed in Shenzhen, ratifying some 22,050 projects since 1980, with Central Committee and the state department issued Joint Order cumulative contracted capital totaling some 27.6 billion yuan 41 designating Shenzhen as a "Special Economic Zone," giving and actual application of approximately 17.3 billion yuan. In Shenzhen preferential rights to seek foreign capital for econom- 1998, Shenzhen ranked sixth among China’s cities in actual ic development and investment in factories. In August 1980, the application of foreign capital, with 2.6 billion yuan. National People's Congress passed "Articles of Special Economic Zone in Guangdong Province", declared to "set up special eco- Among Shenzhen’s direct foreign investment projects, 696 nomic zones in the circumscribed areas of Shenzhen,Zhuhai and exceeded US$10 million, 102 were over US$30 million, and 18 Shantou." In October 1980, Guangdong Province Communist were over US$100 million.In 1997-1998,Shenzhen hosted 58 of Party Committee announced that Shenzhen city would enjoy China’s top 500 foreign investment enterprises and 11 of the the same political treatment as Guangzhou city. In November top 50. Major lines of foreign investment include electronics, 1988, the State Department formally ratified a policy that food, garments, pharmaceuticals and machinery. Among the Shenzhen city would have an individual budget in the national actual total foreign investment volume, heavy, light and ter- plan, or economic administrative power comparable to a tiary industries received 0.2%, 63.7% and 36.5%, respectively. province. In July 1992, the 26th meeting of the 7th National People's Congress passed a resolution to grant law- and regula- Shenzhen’s industrial products are aimed at international tion-making powers to Shenzhen People's Congress,its standing markets, and general industrial products constitute over half committee, and the Shenzhen People's Government. This chal- the city’s industrial production. Customs statistics show lenge to the general application of law caused extensive debate Shenzhen’s total import and export volume at US$45.276 billion in the political and academic circles. in 1998, 939 times the 1979 total (adusted for inflation), representing an annual average increase of 43.4%.Total 1998 export The administrative area in Shenzhen was established,after sev- volume was US$26.424 billion, 1044 times that of 1979, an aver- eral changes, on January 1, 1993.The six districts of Futian, Luohu, age annual increase of 44.2%. In 1998, Shenzhen city’s exports Nanshan,Bao'an,Longgang and Yantian are now under Shenzhen were 34.9% of the province’s total and 14.4% of China’s total. city administration, with Futian, Luohu, Nanshan, and Yantian in Shenzhen city was the top industrial exporter, with the largest the special economic zone.The newly rising city of Shenzhen is a trade surplus,of all China’s cities for the six years ending in 1998, special product of the reform and open policy in China. when the trade surplus reached US$7.6 billion.

FORMER NEXT 99 Chapter 4 This policy-driven economic development unavoidably had city Luohu Futian Nanshan Yantian Bao'an Longgang a profound influence on many characteristics of Shenzhen city total 335.61 87.6 70.67 48 12.55 126.3 87.6 that pertain to this chapter: registered 93.97 17.1 27.48 2.52 24.9 17.1 temporary 241.54 43.19 10.02 101.3 First, by becoming a special economic zone Shenzhen migrants 2 became a city of immigrants. The dramatic economic develop- unit: ten thousand ment of the 1980s was based on large-scale immigration from the whole country, which rapidly increased Shenzhen’s popula- In addition to being a magnet for emigrants seeking work, tion.The population of permanent residents grew from 314,100 Shenzhen is a destination for business and pleasure travelers, in 1979 to 1.9 million in 1989, an increase of 1,601,900 in just 10 and a busy international entry and exit point. Population waves years, an average annual growth rate of 19.8%. During the move in and out of the city every day, month and season. On 1990s, influenced by adjustments to the economic structure average about 300,000 to 400,000 so-called "four withouts" per- and the new population policy,Shenzhen’s average annual pop- sons —those lacking official residence registration (hukou), jobs, ulation growth gradually slowed to 8.7%. addresses, or passes to the special economic zone — reside in Shenzhen, constituting 13.3% of the total population(17). In 1994, Shenzhen’s registered permanent population was 939,700 and the temporary population was 2,415,400. In 1998, Shenzhen is China’s largest-volume exit-entry port, mainly permanent residents numbered 3,949,600, including due to its many links with Hong Kong, which is only 35 kilome- 1,146,000 registered residents (714,800 within and 431,200 ters away. In 1998, 87 million people passed through Shenzhen outside the special economic zone), and 2,836,000 temporary port,about 51% of those entering and leaving China,along with residents (1,131,400 within and 1,672,200 outside the special 9.8 million vehicles, about 80% of China’s total. Shenzhen’ economic zone). The birth rate was 11.65%, mortality 2.09%, numerous recreation places and hotels include seven interna- and natural growth 9.56%. The registered permanent popula- tional-standard golf courses and 85 high-quality hotels, includ- tion included 899,100 non-agricultural and 246,900 agricul- ing six with five stars and four with four stars. Foreign groups tural persons. The total population included 1,929,000 males visiting Shenzhen special economic zone for 72 hours or less are and 2,020,600 females. Average age was 29 in 1998, and the exempt from visa requirements. In 1998, 4.9 million tourists population density was 2027 per square km. From 1990 to stayed at Shenzhen’s hotels, including 1.5 million foreign and 1995, population growth averaged 14.1% per year.With such a 3.4 million domestic visitors, and Shenzhen’s tourist industry low natural growth rate, Shenzhen could only reach its current brought in foreign currency worth US $590 million. large population by immigration. Over 80% of its registered permanent residents immigrated during the past 20 years. Third, Shenzhen has a serious sex imbalance, with more females than males. The Fourth National Demographic Survey Second, Shenzhen’s population is shifting. Most perma- showed Shenzhen’s overall sex ratio at 103.79 females to 97.21 nent residents (i.e., those who have lived there for more than males, which is basically normal. However, the ratio of males to a year) are officially temporary residents (i.e., persons without females among those aged 15 to 22 was 53.2: 100, and for those local registration). Official statistics for 1994 show a total pop- aged 16 was 29.75: 100.This imbalance is attributed to the pref- ulation of 3,356,100 with only 939,700 registered permanent erence for young female workers in the advanced electronics, residents and 72% temporary residents. In 1998 there were telecommunication, doll-making, and service industries. 1,146,000 registered permanent residents among the total population of 3,939,400, leaving 71% temporary residents . Fourth, Shenzhen grew extremely quickly from a small town (17) The demographic causes to the rapidly increased drug addicts in Shenzhen and its countermeasures,by to an international city in only 20 years, at a rate that is rare Yang Zhongxin and Yang Zihui,China Demographic worldwide. During this rapid urbanisation, many peasants Science, 1997, 5th. changed their official identities to "citizens" or city-dwellers,

FORMER NEXT 100 Chapter 4 though 240,000 of Shenzhen’s registered residents chose to expanded to four townships: Shajing, Fuyong, Songgang, and retain their peasant identifications. Most of these hold huge Xinan.The collective drug-taking expanded to most of that area assets and capital, having become a rentier class by selling their in 1993. From 1994 to the present, drug addicts have been lands. found in all eight townships in the district. In May 1995, a campaign against drug taking was launched and Gongming town These demographic characteristics have significant effects opened a stopping-drug-taking camp for its own use. on Shenzhen city’s drug problems. Data presented at a stopping-drug-taking conference joint- The Drug Situation ly organised by the Centre for Social Sciences and the Shenzhen Over the ten years ending in 1990, 573 drug addicts were Municipal CCP Committee indicate that over 100,000 people tracked down in Shenzhen.Then in just one year,1991,406 drug took drugs in Guangdong province in 1995.Among them, some addicts were tracked down, followed by 642 in 1992. In 1993, 30,000 (approximately one-third) were from Shenzhen City. the number was 1.44 times that in 1992. In 1994, it increased Currently, Shenzhen has a population of 3,350,000, indicating another 41%. In 1995, it increased 86% over the previous year. that about 1% of the population takes drugs. The number seised in 1994 was 20.9 times the total for the first 10 years after establishing the special economic zone.In a town- Some Characteristics of Shenzhen’s Drug ship in Bao'an County under Shenzhen Municipality, not one Problems addict was tracked down prior to 1986. In 1987, several persons a) Drug addiction among migrants increases each year were found to take drugs. In 1988, tens of drug addicts were Data from Shenzhen’s stopping drug-taking-camps show found. By 1990, thousands had been seised(18). that migrants constituted about 33% of the addicts treated in 1992, 53% in 1993, 59% in 1994, and 67% in 1995(19). Shenzhen Public Security Bureau data for 1989 show three drug addicts tracked down. In 1990, 98 were tracked down. In b) The unemployed often constitute the largest share of 1991, the municipality established a stopping-drug-taking drug abusers camp in the city,and another camp in Bao-an District.In the two In 1992, the 411 drug addicts at Shenzhen's stopping drug camps, 248 drug addicts received treatment in 1991; 819 camp included: received treatment in 1992; 1,527 received treatment in 1993; and 2,018 received treatments in 1994.Between 1989 and 1994, the unemployed 57.4% 4,713 drug addicts received treatment. Early in 1995, four stop- self-employed 22.4% ping-drug-taking camps were set up in Futian, Nanshan, Luohu, fishermen and farmers 14.6% and Longgang districts. In the first ten months of 1995 4,548 workers and cadres 4.1% drug addicts were detained in the camps, including 2,521 in the students 1.5% Municipal Camp 1,050 in Bao-an District Camp, 350 in Futian District Camp, 250 in Luohu District Camp, 197 in Longgang Of the 1,475 addicts at Bao' an Stopping Drug Taking Camp District Camp, and 180 in Nanshan District Camp. (These num- on June 1, 1994, 62.1% were unemployed; 59% were farmers; bers do not include private stopping-drug camps.) In the six 25.3% were urbn residents; 22.3%were self-employed; 11.1% years 1990 to 1995 (the three persons in 1989 are excluded), the were temporary workers; and 4% were workers. In August 1995, annual average increase in drug addicts tracked down was the 3,711 drug addicts in Shenzhen Stopping Drug Taking (18) China’s drug problem and its countermeasures by 115%.The rate of increase is really surprising. Camp included 57% unemployed, 29.4% self-employed, Guo Xiang, Juvenile Crime Study, 1997: 11-12. 12%workers, 1.3% students, and 0.3% officials. A 1993 survey in (19) "The demographic causes to the rapidly increased drug addicts in Shenzhen and its counter- An informant at the office of Politics and Law Committee in Shenzhen indicated theat among young drug addicts, 57.4% measures",by Yang Zhongxin and Yang Zihui,China Bao'an District provided the following remarks: Some 90% of were unemployed, 22.4% self-employed, and 20.2% students, Demographic Science, 1997, 5th. drug addicts in 1991 were in Shajing township; in 1992 this farmers, or cadres.

FORMER NEXT 101 Chapter 4 c) Addiction among females increased dramatically ments after Shenzhen’s urbanisation.This group was 33% larger In 1992,females were 7% of Shenzhen’s known drug addicts. than the group of original urban residents, who constituted In August 1995, they were 40.5%. This increase was related to 26% of the internees.Investigation into the motives for drug use the higher rate of female immigration: the Fourth National indicates that 60% earned large amounts of money and were Demographic Survey in Shenzhen shows, among immigrants, attracted to various stimuli, 30% were instigated by drug deal- male-to-female sex ratios of 50:100 among those ages 15 to 22; ers, and 10% wanted to treat diseases or become slender. 29.6: 100 at age 16; 31: 100 at age 17; and 37: 100 at age 18. Addiction due to rapid urbanisation amounts to 26.5% in The proportion of female drug addicts under labor reform Bao'an County, Shenzhen. has also increased in recent years. g) Family influence in drug taking d) Drug addiction increases gradually among the Research by Shenzhen Stopping Drug Taking Camp showed youngest 251 (61%) of the 411 addicts in 1992 were only or youngest chil- In 1992,the youngest addict at Bao'an Stopping Drug Taking dren. In 1994, 29% of addicts in Bao'an District came from mar- Camp was 18. By 1995, youngsters age 13 to 18 were found tak- ried, nuclear families, and 71% from single-parent families, ing drugs. A nine-year-old boy was found to have taken drugs cohabitant families, or unmarried families.In 1995, an inquiry by for two years. A survey of age groups at Bao'an Stopping Drug Shenzhen Stopping Drug Taking Camp showed 38% of addicts Taking Camp showed 40% were age 16 to 20; 37.4% were 21 to were from married, nuclear families and 62% from other types 25; 18.6% were 26 to 30; 3% were 30 to 40. Of particular note: of families. The number of drug addicts from nuclear families is 0.5% were age 9 to 15. A survey of young drug addicts at evidently increasing rapidly. Shenzhen Stopping Drug Taking Camp showed those age 15 to 18 to be the fourth-largest group (9.7%) in 1992; in 1994 those Recently published statistics show the number of addicts aged 16 to 20 were the largest group (40%). from self-employed families to be only a little smaller than that from fishermen’s and farmers' families: 36% were from fishing Youth constitute 85% of the addicts at Bao'an Stopping and farming families; 31% from self-employed families; 20.4% Drug Taking Camp, and every camp has 12- and 13-year-old from working-class families, and 12.6% from cadres’ and intel- drug addicts(20). lectuals' families. In Bao'an District, 35% of drug addicts are self- employed, a share exceeded only by native farmers and fisher- e) Addiction is concentrated among the least educated men. This investigation also indicates that a dozen addicts are Among the 1,600 addicts aged 15 to 30 investigated in July groups of three or four sisters, and 210 are pairs of brothers. 1995 in Shajing Township in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, around 400 (25%) had previously received labor reform. At all stopping- drug-taking camps, the majority had not completed secondary Conclusion education, though some were registered but recently expelled students and some had graduated years before. At Bao'an The re-emergence of drug problems in contemporary China Stopping Drug Taking Camp, 60% of the addicts had education results from many factors, both internal and external. qualification of secondary school, as did 65% at Shenzhen Geographically, China has always faced extreme external dan- Stopping Drug Taking Camp. ger due to its proximity to two of the world’s three largest drug- production areas, the "Golden Triangle" and the "Golden f) Problems caused by rural-to-urban transitions Crescent." A survey of occupational distribution among addicts at Bao'an Stopping Drug Taking Camp showed 59%, the second- Land routes connect both areas to China, and the Golden largest group, were former rural residents who funded their Triangle borders directly on China. The difficult transportation (20) Ibid. addictions by selling land and letting out houses and apart- conditions and very sparse populations in the mountainous areas

FORMER NEXT 102 Chapter 4 between China and these production bases make it difficult to economic development and the growth of "special entertain- establish and maintain drug-inspection stations, which is conve- ment industries" such as prostitution and gambling also nient for drug trafficking. Also, the ethnic minorities in south- increased their domestic drug consumption. Since the 1990s, western China and ethnic groups in the drug production areas with the blockage of traditional Golden Triangle drug-export share traditional friendship and kinship connections, as well as channels and the efforts of Golden Crescent groups to open common languages and customs, which further facilitates cross- new drug channels, Fujian and especially Guangdong appeared border drug smuggling.In a word,both natural and human geog- as "virgin" (prime, unexploited) territory for these drug groups. raphy make China quite vulnerable to the world’s major drug pro- Under these circumstances, southeast China was a natural duction bases, and to the penetration of drug influences. choice as a drug-exporting channel.

Since the 1990s, Thailand and Myanmar have been aggres- Finally, the pattern in international drug trafficking is for sively attacking and controlling drug groups. Frequent warfare large amounts of drugs to flow from economically backward in the Golden Crescent and consequent disorders in govern- production areas to economically advanced consumption mental administration have coincided with China's implemen- areas through intermediate transit areas with varying levels of tation of policies of reform and opening to the outside world, economic development.The differences in economic develop- which focused in border areas and caused a great relaxation of ment are a key factor in the vastly different drug prices of the the quasi-military control that China had exerted over those production, transit, and consumption areas. areas during the prior several decades. In areas near the Golden Triangle, where Kuomintang troop remnants once gathered, This is exactly the case in the case of the Golden Triangle and China had stationed heavy forces, numerous strongholds, and Golden Crescent production areas, the traffickers’ transitional militias to control cross-border traffic. When the political ambi- routes in China, and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Statistics tions of the Kuomintang remnants diminished, China greatly indicate that a kilogram of heroin is worth 10,000 to 20,000 RMB reduced its military presence in those areas. in the Golden Triangle area, 100,000 RMB in Guangzhou, and 200,000 RMB in Hong Kong. Such huge potential profits lure Then, the local governments in border areas began to pro- drug smugglers to risk their lives in the "business." mote cross-border trade to develop the local economies. Cross- border travel increased dramatically, creating a totally different The following table lists more of the large price differentials situation from that of the 1950s to 1970s. Public Security and potential rates of profit: Ministry internal documents indicate that in the early years when drug trafficking began to increase, officials underestimat- Figure : Heroin prices per kilogram and associated ed the drug threat represented by these policy changes, which potential rates of profit in various regions (Calculating Unit allowed the problem to become serious in border areas near of Value: RMB) the drug production bases. Region RMB(10,000) US$(10,000) Gross Profit Myanmar 1.0 0.125 A similar sequence occurred over the same period in Baoshan 1.7-2.5 0.213-0.313 1.7-2.5 times Guangdong and Fujian provinces,which are "frontiers" by virtue Dali 3.0-3.5 0.38-0.45 3-3.5 times of their proximity to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Smuggling Kunming 4.0-5.0 0.5-0.63 4-5 times increased rapidly after the relaxation of border control in Fujian Guangzhou 30-50 3.75-6.25 30-50 times and Guangdong, and drug trafficking soon became an increas- Hong Kong 90-100 10-12 80-160 times ingly important component of that "trade." The locations and USA 800 100 800 times free international ports of Hong Kong and Macao have long Source: Su Zhiliang,The History of Drugs in China, Shanghai People's Publishing established them as centres for the collection of drugs from the House, 1997, p.509. Data slightly different from those provided on page 501 in Golden Triangle and distribution to international markets; their the same source.

FORMER NEXT 103 Chapter 4 Thus these drug-trafficking channels arose due to the com- these crimes, how the government calculates the gains and bination of natural, human and economic characteristics in losses to society,how government policy and systems influence China, the drug-production bases, and the intervening areas, the individual calculations, and the particular characteristics of and the policy and political changes noted above. Drug con- these individual and collective calculations in a transitional soci- sumption in China has been characterized by a rapid rises near ety such as China,where rapid economic development enlarges the trafficking channels,with the areas of consumption expand- the economic gaps between different areas. ing over time. This leads to the following subjects of enquiry: The investigation also indicates that drug trafficking was First, if criminal acts result from rational choice, the calcula- rather limited in terms of both volume and geographic area in tion of personal interest must include basic cost-benefit consid- China in the early 1980s, and gradually expanded through the erations. Most of those who profit from drug crimes, particular- mid-80s. In 1991, the volume of drugs smuggled into China was ly those involved in large-scale production, transportation and conservatively estimated at 7,000 kilograms, as much as twice sales know the legal risks, as well as how drug addiction harms the 1990 volume. In 1992, the estimated volume was 10,000 human physical and mental health, and thus refuse to take kilograms. drugs themselves. In contrast to many other kinds of crime, large-scale drug crimes are rarely impulsive. Chinese customs data indicate that 50% of the drugs captured in recent years came from the Golden Triangle, and 45% Rational choice is an obvious characteristic of major drug from the Golden Crescent. More importantly, the number of offences. When asked about their motives, almost all the drug drug-smuggling routes through China has increased dramati- traffickers whom we contacted said they did it to gain large cally. Routes now exist through provinces and ethnic amounts of money, but they cited different individual reasons autonomous regions including Guangxi, Sichuan, Xijiang, and for desiring the money. Those from economically backward Tibet, accompanied by rapid increases in drug trafficking cases areas tended to cite such motives as supporting their impover- in those areas. By 1997, traffickers from the Golden Triangle and ished families (e.g., caring for aged parents or putting children Golden Crescent had opened up a "Golden Channel" through or siblings through school); funding legitimate investments in South China,along with a surprisingly large potential market for such things as orchards, factories, and farm machinery; and pay- drug consumption. In the first half of that year, Chinese customs ing for costly family matters such as house-building, marriage, officials detected some 56 cases of "serious" drug-dealing and childbirth. Those from economically developed areas cited crimes, seizing 220 kilograms of drugs (including 117.3 kilo- more complex and diverse motives such as the desires to satis- grams of heroin, 34.4 kilograms of opium, and 0.05 kilogram of fy "special living demands," support one or more lovers, enjoy borneol).The number of cases in this six-month period was larg- "special services" from women, pay gambling debts (particular- er than for any previous year(21). ly after major losses), and escape bankruptcy caused by failures and deceptions in business. Economic Analysis The price data provided above demonstrate the huge prof- In summary, criminals engaged in drug production, traf- itability of drug trafficking in China, which entices so many to ficking, and retailing who were from economically backward perpetrate these crimes.The economic principle of the "rational areas were primarily motivated by the desire to earn a living or person" applies to criminals, whose decisions can be seen as fund essential development; those from economically devel- rational choices based on individual interests, eliminating the oped areas gave reasons that were unusual or beyond the nor- need for such explanations as "moral corruption", "incomplete mal criteria for living. (21) New Criminal Code and drug Offence, edited by (22) Jiang Zhujun,Xi’yuan Publishing House,1998,p.26-27. psychological development," and "inherent dispositio". (22) Economic analysis to human behavior, by Kali Though this idea is quite radical,it is correct in some sense.Here The psychological trait of opportunism was common Beiker,Shanghai Sanlian Publishing House,1995,p.56. we will discuss how the individual calculates the profitability of among drug criminals from both the backward and the devel-

FORMER NEXT 104 Chapter 4 oped areas. All said that they had originally planned to make majority. The regional governments in those areas take a rela- huge sums quickly, with minimal involvement; once they made tively passive attitude to "drug cleansing" to avoid inflaming a certain amount they planned to give up drug trafficking for historical ethnic conflicts, as well as resentments over suppres- legitimate business, or simply to enjoy family happiness. Of sion of minorities and suspicions of their political loyalty during course, these replies may have been influenced by the fact that the early days of Communist rule. most of the subjects were imprisoned criminals. Still, data from other Chinese sources support the idea that drug trafficking is Finally,the anti-drug effort is influenced by the rational eco- rarely intended as a life-long business. However, this may be nomic calculations of China’s local and national governments, associated with China’s drug trade being in the developmental as touched on in the prior section. Activities such as direct stage. attacks on drug trafficking, rescue of drug addicts, and antidrug education and propaganda, have some of the typical Secondly, the investigation shows that law and policy envi- cooperative characteristics of "public goods," but China’s par- ronments influence relevant crime rates, which in turn pro- ticular circumstances cause sharp differences in the actions of foundly affect the specific law and policy environments. The the various arms of government. After the long period under a law and policy environment directly affects traffickers’calcula- centralised command economy, the new emphasis on local tions of both the chances of detection and the severity of the autonomy in promoting economic development has created penalties. Though China stipulates uniform laws, regulations great variations in the actions of the local and central govern- and punishments for drug crimes, its vast territory, variations ments, with local governments sometimes using their among officials and law-enforcement personnel, and special autonomous powers for policy and action to conduct econom- situations in different areas combine to cause variations in ic rivalry. While the central government provides for public enforcement in different areas, which further affects the risk goods such as national defense,the local governments are sad- calculations of potential criminals. We saw that the relatively dled with the comparably large funding and personnel needs relaxed policies in areas such as Guangdong, Yunnan and for the anti-drug efforts, notwithstanding the potential bene- Xiangjiang contribute seriously to both the larger scale and fits to other areas and the country as a whole. These factors the higher number of drug crimes in those areas. explain much of the local governments’attitudes towards drug prohibition and cleansing. In addition, local governments are In a typical example, local public-security officials privately under pressure to detect and penalise the malfeasance of offi- admitted that penalties in Yunnan Province are much less cials, both to maintain their legitimacy among the local people severe than in other areas such as Beijing. Simple possession and to deal with the determination of the central government. of illicit drugs, which would bring a sentence of five years in Beijing, could be dismissed after education in Yunnan. A crime The investigation showed two ways that local governments that would bring a death sentence in Beijing could bring five avoid the funding dilemma, by treating it passively or control- years of prison in Yunnan; one that would bring the death ling costs through the use of specific measures and actions by penalty in Yunnan would bring several death sentences in paid services. The latter has shown more effectiveness against Beijing. drug problems. The passive approach often triggers intervention by the central government, either by direct funding of pro- The Yunnan officials gave two reasons for this difference. jects or by sending central government officials to fill key posi- First, they noted the traditional Chinese attitude that when tions,such as provincial public security director or deputy direc- many people commit a certain crime in a specific area punish- tor, to handle drug problems that the local governments are ments are less severe than they would be for committing a sim- powerful enough to combat. Realistically, the central govern- ilar crime in an area where it is rarer. Secondly, in practical ment’s resources are insufficient to handle many such situa- Chinese politics,Yunnan and Xinjiang are remote areas inhabit- tions, and in any case this approach is not very effective. ed by many minorities and mixtures of minorities and the However, the central government could mobilize a national

FORMER NEXT 105 Chapter 4 political consensus by persuading officials at different levels China’s transformation from an authoritarian to a pluralistic and the relevant law enforcers that drug crimes endanger the society is a natural,logical development of the reform and open nation. policy since 1978, and also the fundamental characteristic driving social change in China now and in the future. This process As for effective, local measures, the most typical is to set up will break through the national centralisation of power, with and maintain stopping-drug-taking camps. By the late 1990s, new social structures and centres of power gradually appearing. drug use was a serious problem in China, and local govern- Centralised control has decreased rapidly in some fields,but for- ments established many mandatory stopping-drug-taking mation of new social structures so far has been slow and camps. Attendance was, however, not free of charge.The cost to incomplete. At the same time, the whole society is experiencing attendees varied from place to place and depended on the furious shocks caused by market-oriented reform and rapid addicts’ economic backgrounds. Our investigation found that economic growth. fees for three to six months’ treatment, voluntarily or by force, were usually 50,000 or 70,000 RMB,a little less than five to seven This new situation is starting to disintegrate the traditional, years’income for workers at state-owned enterprises, according command economy and general poverty, forming a new, mod- to official data in 1998.Having addicts pay the cost of treatment ern, market-oriented society and making strides toward relative is an obvious way for governments to solve the funding prob- wealth, with individual cases of extremely high income in the lem, but it is not affordable for addicts who voluntarily want to southeastern coastal areas. This influences drug-related crime, stop. This would be enough money to buy drugs for three or and which groups becomes involved in it. Analysis of these four years, some drug takers estimate. Some drug addicts who groups presents a special viewpoint of the transitional process. received drug-stopping treatment have even gotten involved in drug trafficking again to cover the treatment expense. Our investigation found the four most obvious subgroups of drug addicts to be the "shifting" population, farmers and fisher- In sum, the rational economic calculations of both the drug men, women, and young people, and thus gave special atten- criminals and the governments (particularly the local govern- tion to these groups. ments) in China work together to favor drug trafficking and use. Of course, the governments (especially the central govern- The so-called shifting population is a concept used exten- ment) realise the seriousness of the problem and seek to sively by official Chinese agencies to manage society, and for strengthen the attack on drug crimes.We understand this as an demographic statistics.By the broadest definition,they are peo- effort to reduce the crime rate by increasing the cost to those ple who have left where they were registered residents and who commit crimes. At the same time, strengthening the strike have lived and worked (or attempted to do so) elsewhere.They against drug trafficking would require more funding and per- are called "outsiders" by registered local residents. There were sonnel, which poses another challenge to governments that few problems with shifting populations existed before the suffer from funding constraints. reform and open policy, due to strict control, management, opposition and even prohibition by every local government toward those who wanted to live and work away from their Sociological Analysis original places. This analysis considers China as a country undergoing dra- The situation changed greatly with the reform and open matic social transformation, which exerts an extensive and pro- policy. Wealthier areas invited workers from outside, particular- found influence on the drug-related crimes under discussion. ly from rural places, to engage in industrial and service work. (23) Deng Zhenglai, State and Society : A Study on This research on drug-related crime in China supports conclu- With rare exceptions, these "outsiders" come from economical- Civil Society in China, Chengdu: Sichuan People’s sions from other empirical studies, as well as related theories in ly backward areas, and are engaged in jobs that locals are Publishers, 1997, Deng Zhenglai. other work by the present researchers(23). unwilling to take, with bad working environments, low pay and

FORMER NEXT 106 Chapter 4 low prestige, such as recycling, babysitting, cleaning, construc- and many have sex diseases. Also, drug trafficking can be an tion labor, porter, sewing, restaurant, and assembly-line work, or attractive employment opportunity under such conditions. Our unable to find work.The shifting population has few permanent investigation found that many female drug addicts are from eco- (particularly white-collar) jobs, and endures unemployment nomically developed small and medium-sized cities, while (willing or unwilling), low income and oppressive social stratifi- female drug traffickers are mostly from economically backward cation. Even better-educated members of the shifting popula- rural areas. We believe this difference has deep psychological tion who can get relatively good jobs, such as office clerks and reasons.Prostitutes from other cities, under strong spiritual pres- skilled workers, are barred from mainstream local society by sure from having lost their former economic status and ethical their origins and situations. ways of life, find it more difficult to resist drug addiction.Women from backward areas can better deal with the indignity of pros- This combination of factors — low status; bad living condi- titution, given their rise in their living conditions, but their tions; limited, unstable and sometimes no cash income; and stronger desire for money leads them more readily to drug traf- material desires aroused by living amid relative wealth — pre- ficking. disposes the shifting population to crime, especially young and energetic males. Large numbers of criminals convicted in "Farmer and fisherman" are official demographic terms, with metropolitan cities are from the shifting population: 46% in little relation to the occupations and social activities of the so- Beijing, 70 - 80% in Shanghai, 50% in Guangzhou and 97% in called farmer and fishermen drug addicts we observed in Shenzhen(24). These living conditions also induce members of Guangdong Province. With the rapid industrial and economic the shifting population to relieve pressure and seek tempo- development in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, urban and industri- rary stimulus by using drugs, despite the likelihood that drugs al land use has dramatically increased, with a corresponding will only make their conditions worse. decrease in agricultural land.Though the land in China belongs to the country in principle, Chinese law stipulates that the right Our investigation indicates that most women drug addicts to use particular land belongs collectively to the former inhabi- are from the shifting population. Being women makes them tants. Thus, switching farmland to urban or industrial use, vulnerable to drugs in several ways. With poor living standards whether collective or individual, requires compensation to the and the difficulty of finding normal jobs, women from the shift- previous owners. In the special economic zones of Guangzhou ing population tend to be willing or unwilling objects of sex and Shenzhen, the former farmers and fishermen received inducement and sex crimes. In densely populated, economical- handsome payments in exchange for huge pieces of land, ly developed cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen and even beach or port. their peripheral areas, the sex industry is concentrated in places such as dancing halls, karaoke bars, hotels, restaurants, massage Small amounts of this money went to living expenditures at rooms, hairdressers, and movie theaters, many of which have first, but most was invested in production, first for rental hous- developed into professional sex industry. Even those who have ing for members of the shifting population working in factories, normal jobs as clerks or assembly-line workers also tend to be secondly to invest in small business, thirdly to purchase fishing objects of sexual molestation, and are willingly or unwillingly ships to provide seafood for the cities and also to engage in the involved in illegal sexual activities such as unlawful cohabita- smuggling trade created by rapid economic development. tion or living with married men. These investments and activities provide a rather handsome income for the former farmers and fishermen, but their relative- Thus, unstable living conditions, difficult occupations, and ly low level of education makes it hard for them to undertake vulnerability to the inducements of the sex industry create psy- other kinds of development and investment. (24) Cao Feng:The Fifth High Tide:the Crime Problems chological pressures which many women seek to relieve by tak- in Contemporary china,Beijing:China Today Publisher, ing drugs. For drug-addicted women, prostitution is an easy way Many of the former farmers and fishermen began killing 1997,p.91. to pay for drugs. Among prostitutes the ratio of addicts is rising, time by gambling and seeking novelty and stimulus. Our inves-

FORMER NEXT 107 Chapter 4 tigation indicates that among the so-called farmers and fisher- exist, and the governments still seem willing to adopt highly men in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the brave ones are often costly drug-prohibition steps that bring almost zero benefit. good at exploiting personal relations, familiar with the geographic situation, and engaged in the lucrative drug trafficking; However,we also must note that as the restricted conditions many of those who indulge in the luxurious life become drug and materials of research precluded a more detailed and larger addicts; and some embody a mixture of the two types. These study,our conclusions remain seriously restricted.We feel it nec- factors explain the high rate of drug addiction among those essary to conduct a comparative analysis on the primary identified as farmers and fishermen. Also, the actual addiction research that has already been accomplished in the hope of rate among this group may be higher than statistics indicate, as providing more meaningful conclusions, especially for the their status and connections as local residents have reportedly problems in the border province of Yunnan, which suffers seri- allowed many to avoid prosecution. ous drug problems combined with poor economic development, the hinterland province of Shanxi, which has a similarly Drug addiction among juveniles (those under age 18) is a backward economy and equally serious drug problem, and the serious problem, associated with both the increasing shifting heartland city of Beijing, which has a relatively developed econ- population and the so-called farmers and fishermen. Our study omy but greater government emphasis on drug problems. suggests that juvenile addicts can be classified into two types. These areas will be our next focus of research.The research task- One group consists of children of rich farmers, fishermen and force members hope to contribute to the drug resolution in citizens, supported by their families, who start to take drugs, China by our own specific entities and professional disciplines. induced by the twisted enjoyments found in cities, and particularly by the deliberate encouragement of their young friends and the drug-dealing groups. The other group is made up of children who moved to cities and economically developed areas for various family reasons, especially economic ones, found it difficult get normal jobs, and started to take and sell drugs.Also,drug-trafficking groups exploit the relatively lax official treatment of underage criminals.This phenomenon prevails worldwide but is especially serious in China, particularly in Guangdong province, owing to officials’ insufficient emphasis on juvenile crime, crimes induced by criminal groups, and a lack of experience in dealing with these matters.

The preceding analysis shows that Guangdong’s drug problems, despite many special characteristics, are basically those of a society in transition. These problems are shared by other countries and regions, but are more acute in China due to the extreme and rapid social transformation. Precisely for this reason, we are not optimistic about the future drug problems in Guangdong or the whole country. In Guangdong, we see a trend towards more and more serious drug problems, and China as a whole could replay Guangdong’s dangerous patterns of economic growth and related problems, including drug problems. Though both the central and local governments already realise the problem, few effective countermeasures

FORMER NEXT 108 Chapter 4 Bibliography

GUO, X, 1997, "A survey of drug problems in China",Youth Crimes Research, 1997:1. "the drug problem in China and its countermea sures", , 1997, 11-12.

YANG, Z.X et al., 1997, "The demographic background of the increase of drug addicts in Shenzhen and a strategic analysis", China Population Science, 1997:5.

GE, Q.Z., "Caution! White color epidemics under the sun, or drug related crimes in Guangzhou area", People's Law Court Daily, March 7th, 1994.

ZHANG, Z.M., 1996, "Condition of drug related crimes and certain proposal against them in Guangzhou",Youth Crimes Research, 1996: 4.

CHENG, X.K., et al., 1997, "An analysis of female drug addicts under labor reform in Guangzhou",Youth Crimes Research, 1997:1.

CHEN, D.P.,1998, The Astonishing Lens of Drugs, Beijing: Hongqi Publishing House.

Editorial group, 1996, "Remembering the national humiliation, stopping drug flows once again", People's Law Court Daily, June the 26th, 1996. ______, 1997b, "China drug problems and some strategies against them",Youth Crimes Research, 1997:11-12.

JIANG, Z.J., 1998, The New Criminal Law and Drug Related Crimes, Beijing: Xiyuan Publishing House.

OUYANG,T. and CHEN, Z.X., 1992, Drug Related Crimes and Some Strategies, Beijing: Qunzhong Publishing House.

SU, Z.L., 1997, The History of Drugs in China, Shanghai: People's Publishing House.

YUAN,Y., 1994, The Big Prison: Understanding Drug Industry, Guizhou: People's Publishing House.

FORMER

109 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 were able to apply more scrutiny after peace returned to most of TRAFFICKING DRUGS southern Africa in the 1990s,there is little doubt that in real terms IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: there are more drugs being trafficked and consumed in the re- THE LEGACY OF WAR gion now than ever before. In 1995, an average year (and one AND APARTHEID where statistics are the most comprehensive), close to half the heroin seised in Africa was confiscated in southern Africa. Laurent Laniel Additionally,close to 9 per cent of the marijuana and 48 per cent of the methaqualone seised worldwide were also intercepted in the region. While in 1995 cocaine seisures were small in Africa (they have since experienced a significant rise), southern Africa accounted for 73 per cent (200 kg) of the total cocaine seised on the continent(3).

Introduction In the summer of 1997 the Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues (OGD), or Geopolitical Drug Watch, conducted a study in In our own time,the analogy between war making and state southern Africa in order to understand why such a drastic change making,on the one hand,and organised crime,on the other,is be- occurred at the request of the European Commission(4).The OGD coming tragically apt. study was the first one of its kind ever carried out in that part of the Charles Tilly(1) world and its objective was to produce a picture of the regional geopolitics of drugs. One of the difficulties encountered was the Until the early 1990s,southern Africa(2) was playing a marginal absence or unreliability of drug-related law enforcement and role on the international drug scene. At any rate, local and inter- health statistics in the region(5). This is a problem that prevails national observers were not especially concerned with the drug throughout Africa and the world,but that was more acute in south- situation in the region. Additionally, in most southern African ern Africa.Very few of the countries surveyed had developed na- countries, alcohol abuse — especially abuse of home-made tional instruments to monitor drug use, production or trafficking beers and spirits — was a far more serious problem than drug at the time of the study.The information had to be gathered from (1) Charles Tilly, "War Making and State Making as use, and it still is today, though there has been a rise in reported a variety of sources — including health and police authorities,so- Organised Crime", in P.Evans, D. Ruschmeyer and T. illegal drug use. Apart from the region-wide use of cannabis, cial workers, journalists, academics, NGO members and drug pro- Skocpol, Bringing the State Back In, pp. 169-91, which is grown locally and in many cases is socially acceptable ducers,traffickers and users — and then patched together for anal- Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984,. and/or culturally integrated, and the abuse of legal medical ysis. (2) In this chapter "southern Africa" or "the region" means the following countries, which are all mem- drugs, illegal drugs were not widely used or trafficked. One im- bers of the Southern African Development portant exception is mandrax, an anti-depressant mostly made This chapter proposes three macro-level, interconnected Community (SADC): Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, up of methaqualone,which has been widely used and abused in geopolitical factors in order to explain the recent mutation of the Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South the Republic of South Africa (RSA) for at least twenty years. southern African drug geopolitics.It is not claimed that these fac- Africa, Swaziland,Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. tors are the only ones,but merely that they are central to under- (3)The sources of these figures are a variety of reports from Interpol and the World Customs Organisation. When southern Africa opened up to the world following the standing the drug situation in southern Africa at present. (4) The field study was conducted in the summer of end of civil wars and the downfall of the apartheid regime in the 1997.It must be stressed that the arguments made in RSA in the mid-1990s, the region simultaneously became both The first explanation has been called the "ethnic-political fac- the present chapter are the sole responsibility of the an export and transit hub and a market for the international tor".According to this explanation,the rampant or open civil and author and that they do not necessarily reflect the flows of illicit substances like cocaine,heroin,hashish,marijuana international conflicts arising from apartheid and the barriers it views of OGD or the European Union.For more information on OGD,please check:http://www.ogd.org and synthetic drugs (mainly ecstasy and LSD).Although this sud- has erected between ethnic communities and countries have be- (5) Important exceptions are Mauritius,Namibia and den rise can partly be explained by a change of perception come a breeding ground for processes fostering the production, Tanzania. among local and international law- enforcement agencies,which trafficking and consumption of banned drugs.

NEXT 110 Chapter 5 The second explanation is the "legacy of conflicts".It relates to that most drug trafficking within southern Africa takes place by the illegal infrastructure and expertise that were developed in the land, roads and rail. Because most of the roads and railways that region during three decades of conflict. Indeed, during the Cold were built in southern Africa in the nineteenth and early twenti- War and apartheid in the Republic of South Africa (RSA), large- eth centuries in order to export its agricultural and mineral re- scale,non-drug trafficking activities within the region and between sources lead to the seaports of South Africa, the country is lo- the region and the rest of the world were established by a range cated where most regional drug-trafficking routes also converge of political and economic forces. Largely, they served to bankroll (exceptions are reviewed below). South Africa is a major transit warring parties and to skirt the embargo the international com- point for international drug-trafficking routes and an exporter of munity was enforcing against South Africa. Now — but southern regionally produced illegal substances to the rest of the world. Africa is no exception in today’s world — these connections and This is not to say that the other countries of the region are mere networks take on board "new" products — drugs.As the regional satellites of the RSA,or that South African drug traffickers are the political environment has switched from war to peace,the nature "bosses" who exert overall control on the regional drug trade.On of the networks, as defined by the justification for their involve- the contrary, the OGD study has shown that every country — ment in illegal trading,has changed from "political" to "mercantile". even those that are the most dependent on their powerful neighbour — has its own drug-trafficking and drug- production The third factor is "barter", an age-old tool of traders around arrangements and its own networks, which can be active on the the world. Drugs have become part of the range of products domestic,regional and/or international drug scene and can make dealt with by smuggling networks because they are high value- deals with other networks in South Africa and elsewhere in the added commodities, easily available on the world market given region. adequate connections,and they can be exchanged for the commodities southern Africa has to offer.Drugs are well suited to play That said, the RSA’s central role in regional drug geopolitics the part of a "strong currency": they command a high price, are becomes apparent for the reasons listed below. not subject to inflation (prohibition and law enforcement maintain floor prices and regulate over-production), are fairly easy to Physical factors: geography, resources and in- transport because of their small volume, and they can either be frastructure disposed of on the increasingly large regional consumer market South Africa is strategically located on major shipping and air or used in another transaction. routes of the southern hemisphere in the middle between South America — especially Brazil and Argentina,both major exporters Before examining these factors in greater detail and con- of cocaine(6) — and Asia — especially India and Pakistan,both excluding on a geopolitical snapshot of the region as a whole, it is porters of heroin and hashish(7) — via the Arab Emirate of Dubai, necessary to give a broad description of the southern African a major international smuggling hub. Additionally, South Africa (6) However, Colombia also exports marijuana via drug scene by bringing out the central role played by the is well connected by air with Western Europe and the United the RSA:in December 1996,18 tonnes of Colombian Republic of South Africa. States, both of which are huge drug consumer markets and marijuana was seised at the port of Durban, South home to powerful, internationally active,criminal organisations. Africa. The RSA has especially close cultural and commercial ties with (7) To give just one example: on 3 May 1994, 26.4 The United Kingdom and the Netherlands, whose criminal or- tonnes of Pakistani hashish were seised at the port The South African Crossroads of Montreal,Canada,in three containers of clothing ganisations produce and export "club drugs" (ecstasy, LSD, etc.) and tea,one of which had transited through the port Due to its economic, political and demographic (41.5 million and launder money(8).International organised crime in general is of Durban. inhabitants) weight, its location on the world map and the pres- very much involved in South Africa, as many criminals view the (8) For an overview of the drug situation in the ence of comparatively modern and efficient infrastructure, the country as a safe haven against prosecution in their home coun- United Kingdom, see Polydrug Use and Polydrug Trafficking in the UK:A Model for Europe?,in OGD,The Republic of South Africa is at the centre of the regional drug-traf- tries,and/or an enticing "land of opportunities" for organising il- World Geopolitics of Drugs 1997/1998, OGD, Paris, ficking scene as it is at the crossroads of most legitimate flows in legal transactions, including drug trafficking and money laun- October 1998 (http://www.ogd.org). and out of southern Africa. Seisures and other indicators show dering.American,British,Chinese,Dutch,French,German,Indian,

FORMER NEXT 111 Chapter 5 Irish, Israeli and Russian criminal organisations are known to be tractive to big-time foreign criminals but also to millions of peo- doing ‘business’in southern Africa(9). ple from neighbouring countries who are not professional criminals but who come to trade in gems, gold, ivory, rhino-horns, Southern Africa’s political and economic geography is a ma- arms or drugs to earn a living, thereby boosting the informal jor factor contributing to South Africa’s prominence in the re- economy. According to an analyst with the international ac- gional drug trade. South Africa is the region’s economic giant counting firm KPMG, South Africa is among the world’s most and it is at the crossroads of most incoming and outgoing flows promising countries for money laundering. Until May 1997, of goods, money and expertise. Out of the twelve countries in money laundering was not a crime in the RSA, and it is to be the region six have no access to the sea and need to use sea- doubted whether the new legislation is adequate and whether ports located in neighbouring countries in order to import and it will be possible to enforce it adequately given the corruption export goods and commodities.The six landlocked countries and lack of training of national enforcement bodies. are Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe whose main exports are agricultural produce (to- Additionally, South Africa is endowed with many natural bacco,sugar,tea,etc.) and minerals (diamonds,copper,uranium, riches that fuel lucrative smuggling activities.The country is one etc.).Although the ports of the RSA are not the only ones avail- of the largest world producers of gold and diamonds,two com- able for southern African exporters,for many countries they are modities that,in and of themselves,justify the existence of pow- the nearest.The port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania,is located at erful and well-connected international smuggling rings span- the region’s northern tip, and processes mainly Zambia’s and a ning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and Europe (in- share of Malawi’s imports and exports.The ports of Nacala,Beira cluding Russia). Southern Africa as a whole is home to most of and Maputo in Mozambique, also export a share of Malawi’s, the surviving rhinoceros population of the world, and this Swaziland’s, Zambia’s and Zimbabwe’s foreign-bound com- arouses the cupidity of gangs of poachers — a rhino horn can modities, but the disorder and poverty prevailing in post-war fetch more than US$ 4,000 on the black market. Elephants are Mozambique and the run-down state of its infrastructure does hunted for their tusks.The South African automobile industry not make it attractive for would-be exporters of legitimate should also be counted among the country’s resources.Indeed, goods. By contrast Mozambican ports, especially Beira, are sig- major manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz,Toyota and nificant hubs for drugs and arms imports and exports.Another Volkswagen all operate assembly plants in the RSA. Some reason for South Africa’s strategic location at one end of re- 100,000 vehicles are stolen every year in South Africa alone but gional roads and railways is the fact that it is, due to its indus- car theft is also a serious problem in the rest of southern Africa. try, a large exporter of goods to its neighbours. For instance, Stolen vehicles are taken apart and sold off as spare parts or ex- over 80 per cent of Botswana’s, Lesotho’s and Namibia’s regis- ported to other countries (in southern Africa and beyond) both tered imports come from South Africa. by large criminal organisations and independent "small-timers". The stolen car racket is linked to the drug trade in more than one The RSA is by far the country best endowed with infrastruc- way. For instance, many drug dealers accept cars as payment ture in southern Africa. It has a multitude of airports — many from their clients and stolen vehicles are used to smuggle drugs very poorly policed or not at all —which have long been used across borders. for various types of smuggling. Its road network is by far the best in the region and its seaports are both modern and lo- The largest consumer market in southern Africa cated on major international shipping routes.With a strong and Consumer markets are an important aspect of drug geopoli- convertible currency, a dynamic stock-exchange, an efficient tics,even if a somewhat neglected one.Indeed,until now by and and computerised banking system,modern cities,a developed large demand (drug consumption) has been the preserve of epi- (9) For some details on Chinese and Russian organised crime in the RSA,see D.Beresford,SA crime is get- industrial sector, a booming real-estate market (especially in demiologists,anthropologists or sociologists,who endeavour to ting organised,inThe Weekly Mail and Guardian,13 and around Cape Town) a rapidly expanding tourist industry explore the relationship between drugs and individuals and/or February 1998. and a powerful gambling industry, South Africa is not only at- drugs and society (mostly national societies),while supply (drug

FORMER NEXT 112 Chapter 5 production and trafficking) has been mostly studied by special- most drug users across the social spectrum in both rural and ur- ists in political science, economics, international relations and ban areas. geopolitics(10). However much understanding of the drug phenomenon can be gained by examining the dynamic relationship Dagga use seems to be decriminalised de facto in the RSA, between supply and demand,the spaces where drug production as it is in most other southern African countries,and in Western and trafficking, on the one hand, and drug consumption, on the Europe.Clues to de facto decriminalisation include statements other, meet and interact(11). by government ministers, such as Sipho Mzimela, the South African minister for penal institutions, who has declared that Due to its large consumer market for illegal drugs, the RSA changing the law in order to decriminalise dagga possession (10)There are exceptions to this general rule.One is the attracts substances produced in southern Africa and beyond. "could save millions of taxpayers' money". Since a 1992 deci- American "ethnographic school" of drug studies which has produced some excellent work on local-level drug There were no estimates of the number of drug users in South sion, many South African courts take into account the trafficking, such as P. Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Africa, at the time of the field of the study, but given the size of widespread social tolerance of cannabis use in the country: Selling Crack in El Barrio, Cambridge/ New York/ its urban population and its comparatively large middle classes, "Dagga is so easy to obtain and its use is so widespread that at Melbourne,Cambridge University Press,1995. it is safe to assume that it is the largest consumer market for il- least a large proportion of the population do not view its posses- (11) OGD strove to take into account both the demand legal drugs in southern Africa(12). Major urban centres such as sion as a crime or even a social problem.The social reprobation and the supply of drugs as parts of the same problem, see for instance "Polydrug Use and Polydrug Trafficking in Johannesburg, Pretoria (both in Gauteng Province, which is al- arising from the heavy penalties awarded for dagga possession the U.K.:A Model for Europe?" and "Heroin Networks and most entirely urban), Cape Town (a major tourist area) and cannot be overlooked". However, not everyone agrees with de- Markets in Europe", both in OGD, op. cit. Christian Durban (capital of KwaZulu-Natal and a major seaport) provide criminalising dagga; opponents include Dr Sylvain Miranda,one Geffray’s study on the "cocaine boom" in the Brazilian large, diversified and sophisticated drug-consumer markets. of South Africa’s leading epidemiologists(15). Additionally, there state of Rondônia, in the Amazon region, can also be The lower end of the domestic market is made up of the drug- seems to be a consensus among South African law-enforce- mentioned in this respect. (12) Let us repeat that by far the most-widely con- using population living in the often huge Black and Coloured ment agencies that cannabis is much less dangerous than other sumed drug in Southern Africa,and across the social (including Indian) townships, who mainly consume marijuana proscribed drugs.As one journalist aptly put it:"The police don't spectrum, is alcohol. Alcohol also gives rise to most — called "dagga" in South Africa — mandrax, and increasingly bother with dagga; they can’t even cope with the trade in hard problematic substance abuse in the region.However, crack cocaine (especially in Johannesburg(13)), and are poor. drugs"(16).This statement is backed by the statistics of the South thereafter in this chapter the word "drug(s)" means il- Some heroin is consumed among the poor,but it seems that so African Police Service (SAPS), according to which arrests for legal drugs,unless specified otherwise. (13) The South African authorities first registered the far heroin use is restricted to the better off.The latter make up dagga possession fell from 6,511 in 1992 to 1,475 in 1996.From use of crack-cocaine,also known as "rock",in 1993.In the upper end of the drug-consumer market, comprising most Mozambique to Zambia through Zimbabwe and Tanzania, the 1996,Dr.Sylvain Miranda,director of the Phoenix House urban Whites as well as better off Black and Coloured drug same reflexes can be observed among civil servants across the treatment centre and of SANCA,estimated that there users.The most prevalent substances in richer circles are dagga, region:while the toxicity of cannabis is not discussed,and while were 150,000 crack users in Gauteng Province alone, powder and crack cocaine,"club drugs",heroin (mostly smoked its status as a now prohibited product is not questioned, the and went so far as to predict that there would be (14) 500,000 nationwide by the year 2000.He perhaps ex- N°3 heroin,aka "brown sugar"),and some mandrax .Polydrug problems regarding cannabis are viewed as secondary when aggerated somewhat. Although most crack dealers use, that is the regular use of more than one substance by one compared with those posed by other drugs, especially alco- and users are to be found in the Johannesburg area (es- person, is frequent among both rich and poor users and tends hol(17). pecially in the Hillbrow and Berea districts),crack use to become more popular: according to the South Africa seems to be spreading to other major urban areas like National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency A major factor for the social tolerance of cannabis in the RSA Cape Town and Durban (14) In the first half of the 1980s, Mandrax was re- (SANCA), between 30 and 40 per cent of the people admitted and southern Africa as a whole is history.Dagga has been grown stricted to Whites and Coloureds of all social classes; for treatment in Gauteng Province in 1997 had taken several and used by the inhabitants of the region for hundreds of years. Blacks were generally so poor that they could not af- drugs, against 12 per cent in 1996 and 7 per cent in 1995.The According to historical research, it is highly likely that the San ford to buy it.(15) See T.Ryan, Let the public into the most widely used drug in rural areas is dagga. (aka Bushmen) and Khoikhoi (or Hottentot) people,who were the dagga debate, The Weekly Mail and Guardian earliest inhabitants of the southern part of the continent, were (Johannesburg),6 March 1998. (18) (16) F.Fracassi and L.Evans,Money can buy immunity, While it is difficult to rank the various drugs used in South using dagga before 1500 . In many rural areas throughout the The Weekly Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg), 25 Africa by rates of prevalence, it is clear that dagga is the most region, marijuana is viewed as a traditional medicine that cures July 1997. prevalent substance countrywide by a long shot.It is smoked by people and animals(19). Since the end of the nineteenth century,

FORMER NEXT 113 Chapter 5 (17) However true that may be,international pressure and the eagerness of regional governments to be- with the employment of Blacks in the mines and on big farms, ing climatic conditions could produce very wide annual varia- come fully fledged members of the international utilitarian, or functional, use of marijuana has been common tions.The official said that the "real" estimate was 2,000 hectares. community — and thereby become eligible for IMF among workers. Dagga is reputed to give workers more Most observers will find it hard to believe that such a huge varia- and World Bank loans — can result in the banning of strength(20).White employers often encouraged the use of dagga. tion in estimated acreage is explainable by changes in the cannabis possession and use in countries where it was previously allowed and socially acceptable.The In the new South Africa,some argue that since dagga use is com- weather and mistaken calculation only. Whatever the case, the most recent case is Mozambique, which first out- mon to Blacks and Whites it helps bridge the gap between the only other estimate OGD could find is that by a Western official. lawed cannabis (known locally as suruma) in 1997, communities.Whether or not this is true,it cannot be denied that From his own observations and calculations, he concluded that then signed all United Nations drug conventions in cannabis has been part of the culture of many of the ethnic the total cannabis acreage in South Africa was somewhere June 1998.See L.Laniel,The Drug Summit,New York 8- groups living in southern Africa for hundreds of years, as is illus- around 35,000 hectares.This is still an enormous figure.Taking a 10 June 1998, Annex 1a, UNESCO - MOST Drug Programme, Paris, October 1998, (MOST-Drugs trated by the existence of a specific word for cannabis in most in- conservative yield - estimate of 100 kg of ready-to-smoke mari- Reports Series,N°3) digenous African languages(21). juana per hectare per harvest,and given 1.5 harvests a year (some (http://www.unesco.org/most/laniel.htm). producing areas have two harvests per year, others one only), it (18) B.Du Toît,Cannabis in Africa,p.8 ( published for Dagga and the southern African means that South Africa produces some 5,250 tonnes of mar- the African Studies Centre, University of Florida, "cannabis corridor" ketable dagga every year — a large quantity by all standards. Gainesville,by A.A.Balkema,Rotterdam,1980) states that cannabis "was almost certainly used in the In present-day South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland, southern part of the continent [Africa] in pre- another major argument for the widespread tolerance of mari- Although the two provinces mentioned above are the largest Portuguese times,i.e.,before A.D.1500"; while J.Gill juana is economics. Indeed, as in many other parts of Africa and producers, cannabis is grown throughout South Africa. (A Short History of Lesotho, p. 7, Morija (Lesotho), beyond,cannabis cropping can be the sole or major source of rev- Additionally,the vast majority of the dagga produced in Lesotho Morija Museum & Archives, 1993), maintains that enue for entire communities.While the size of cannabis crops is and Swaziland,both small landlocked countries which are heav- dagga was known to the San prior to 1550". (19) Laurent Laniel, Cannabis in Lesotho: generally unknown, the available evidence demonstrates that ily dependent on the RSA economically, eventually ends up on A Preliminary Survey, MOST Discussion Paper N° 34, marijuana production is part and parcel of the rural economy in the South African market and should therefore be counted as be- ParisUNESCO,1999 (http://www.unesco.org/most/d many southern African regions. This is especially the case in longing to the South African cannabis complex(24).Taken together, slaniel.htm), lists some of the traditional medical Lesotho(22) and Malawi, in some areas of Zambia and Swaziland, the latter two provinces and two independent countries repre- uses of marijuana (locally known as matekoane) in along the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe, not to sent the southern tip of a region-wide "cannabis corridor" which Lesotho. The Basotho ethnic group that peoples Lesotho is also one of the ethnic components of the forget the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of the stretches south–north from the Eastern Cape to southern RSA’s population. RSA(23). Tanzania, through parts of eastern Mozambique, eastern (20) Marijuana is reputed to have several utilitarian Zimbabwe, north-eastern Zambia and the whole of Malawi; and virtues throughout Africa south of the Sahara. One South Africa itself is a large producer of dagga, perhaps the east — west from southern Zambia to eastern Namibia and that is frequently reported is that it enables users to largest in a region where cannabis can be a veritable agri-business Botswana,through north-western Zimbabwe.This ‘cannabis cor- work harder. For details on this and other reported utilitarian uses see, Laurent Laniel, "Où va la produc- and a major source of income for entire countries. South African ridor’ has been identified by OGD as the area of southern Africa tion de cannabis: Marché local de la consommation et official estimates of the total acreage of land dedicated to where cannabis cultivation is the most prevalent, though développement des cultures illicites au Ghana",in OGD: cannabis growing in the RSA are highly unreliable and in all like- cannabis may be grown in areas outside the corridor:Angola is a Les drogues en Afrique subsaharienne,Karthala/Paris, lihood subject to political manipulation. In August 1996, a mem- significant producer of marijuana but it is not within the corridor. UNESCO, 1998; and Laurent Laniel, "Violencia y mari- orandum jointly written by Interpol and the International Narcotic huana:usos del "tabaco del diablo" en el Ghana con- temporáneo", in Inchaurraga, S. (comp.): Drogas y Control Board of the United Nations (INCB) based on a report by The corridor currently tends to grow longer and wider,and the Drogadependencias, Teoría, Clínica e Instituciones, the South African Narcotics Bureau (SANAB) stated:"Aerial recon- areas more recently involved in dagga growing also seem to be CEAD-SIDA, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, naissance carried out by the South African authorities showed more heavily involved in a commercial (as opposed to cultural) ex- Argentina,1997. cannabis growing on more than 80,000 hectares in the former ploitation of marijuana. Indeed, it seems that cannabis crops are (21) See Du Toît, op.cit. Republic of Transkei ( now in Eastern Cape Province).Adding the pro- expanding in regions increasingly specialising in producing for re- (22) Laniel, Cannabis in Lesotho, op. cit., lists evi- duction of this region to total South African production,it is clear that gional urban markets and for export (Lesotho, Malawi, South dence that marijuana provides nearly 50 per cent of the overall income and almost 100 per cent of the South Africa is now the biggest cannabis producer in the world". Africa and Swaziland) sought-after varieties of cannabis ("Malawi cash income of farms in mountainous districts of However, in June 1997, a senior SANAB official told OGD that the Gold", a popular type of marijuana originally grown in Malawi, is Lesotho. 80,000-hectare figure was "a statistical mistake" and that chang- now also grown in Mozambique and Zimbabwe).It is interesting

FORMER NEXT 114 Chapter 5 to note that the countries where marijuana production is all but "political" differences became blurred, in what can be viewed entirely destined for the domestic consumer market are also as a real-life version of The Clash of Civilisations, Samuel those which opposed most resistance to the implementation of Huntington’s proposed agenda for US strategic planning in the structural adjustment programmes (Mozambique and twenty-first century(26). Both anti- and pro-apartheid forces Zimbabwe). found allies outside South Africa and since the international environment was characterised by a conflict between capitalist Although the vast majority of the cannabis produced in and communist countries, the struggle over apartheid inte- southern Africa is consumed locally, seisure statistics show that grated the Cold War logic of "fighting for the revolution" versus increasing amounts supply the European market, especially the "fighting communism". That led to the South African conflict United Kingdom and the Netherlands, where it can be bartered spreading out into neighbouring countries, thus becoming a for "club drugs" sold on the South African market. Southern structural factor of regional geopolitics. In South Africa itself, African marijuana enters Europe by air and by sea mainly in the the crisis started in December 1961 with the creation by the United Kingdom as was shown by seisures made at the ports of South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Tilbury and Felixstowe, as well as Durban and Cape Town. An in- Congress (ANC), both banned, of a common armed wing: teresting case of international drug smuggling by air is that of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). In 1967/68 from its Johannes Verster,a former South African military intelligence of- base in Zambia, the movement launched a guerrilla campaign ficer officially dismissed after a purge of the special services in in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where the South African 1992 and previously involved in diamond smuggling in Angola police intervened. Then a movement called the South-West and Namibia. Verster was arrested in the United Kingdom at African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) started fighting for free- Bournemouth airport,in February 1997 for bringing in 120 kg of dom in Namibia,at the time a South African colony called South dagga aboard the private jet of a Port Elizabeth millionaire. West Africa, and then in Angola after 1975, when both Angola and Mozambique gained their independence from Portugal.The fighting escalated after the RSA intervened in the civil wars that Ethnic and Political Divides erupted in the former Portuguese colonies with a view to keeping "communist subversion" as far away as possible from its Ethnic diversity,particularities and the weight of history and borders. The South African military intervened directly in culture are fundamental to an understanding of the drug situ- Angola until 1989, then indirectly by providing support to ation in southern Africa.These particularities strongly influence Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA rebel movement(27). Likewise, its surro- the drug phenomenon in all its aspects:production,trafficking, gate in Mozambique was the RENAMO guerrilla group until consumption and money laundering.In fact,the social and eco- 1992.Inside South Africa,the "securocrats" who grabbed power (23) Koch, E. & Mthembu, E.: "The crop that clothes, nomic activities related to drugs, a mercantile product par ex- in Pretoria in 1978 waged a dirty war with no holds barred feeds and educates...is illegal",in The Weekly Mail and cellence, are modelled on both formal and informal pre-exist- against anti-apartheid groups until the ANC finally won the Guardian,25 July 1997. ing traditions and activities. All the more so because until very April 1994 election. (24) For details on the cannabis agri-business in recently ethnic differences were explicitly instrumented by Lesotho,see Laniel,Cannabis in Lesotho,op.cit. some regional governments in order to perpetuate systems of The ethno-political struggle has erected high and strong bar- (25) South Africa until the early 1990s, Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe at least until 1980 and Namibia until in- unequal land ownership and resource-distribution to the ben- riers between countries and communities,fostering distrust,hate (25) dependence in 1990 are the best-known examples. efit of one ethnic community against the others . In South and violence.War staged in an environment where political and Although not to the same degree of acuteness, Africa, such a system — apartheid — was institutionalised and ethnic segregation often found support in diasporas and survival Angola and Mauritius also qualify. it determined just about every aspect of people’s lives. The strategies has strengthened in the minds of many the idea that (26) S.Huntington,The Clash of Civilizations,Foreign racial segregation implemented by Whites (especially Boers) "they",that is,members of another ethnic group,political organ- Affairs,Vol.72, N° 3, Summer 1993. (27) To this day UNITA’s supplies often come from, who controlled the state translated into politics as disenfran- isation or the state,are an obstacle to,even an enemy of,self-de- or transit,South Africa;see The Angolan Connections, chised Blacks and Coloureds organised to fight the system that velopment. The Geopolitical Drug Dispatch,N° 79,May 1998. was oppressing them.Thus the border between "ethnic" and

FORMER NEXT 115 Chapter 5 Communities live side by side but the general rule is that they the region.The drug trade continues to be run as a partnership do not mix.This has several implications for the drug trade.Firstly, between ethnic Indian/Pakistani businessmen with adequate many drug trafficking networks are run along ethnic-political connections in Mumbai and Dubai,and African politicians and se- and/or family and clan lines. Because trafficking drugs is an ille- nior officials, although nowadays the former mandrax importers gal activity, a crucial organisational element of the gangs in- seem to have diversified into heroin. In South Africa, mandrax volved is trust. Indeed, associates, partners, bosses and employ- street distribution has long been the preserve of Coloured gangs, ees need to trust one another, since there are no written con- especially in Cape Town where some gangs were used by the tracts to regulate the activity and no courts to settle potential dis- South African police as surrogates. Although the mandrax trade putes. Ethnic, family and clan bonds provide trust, as do present has now become "democratised" and a wider range of people are or past "brotherhood in arms" or membership of military units, involved in it thanks to the opening of international borders after intelligence services, etc.The ethnic base of drug trafficking en- the conflicts ended,the Coloured gangs continue to play a major sures that the networks will be tightly closed to outsiders and role in international mandrax trafficking and have diversified into therefore impenetrable by law enforcement or competitors cocaine distribution and car theft.By contrast,in South Africa and (which can be,and often are,the same).Because of the tightness most other countries, Africans (Zulus, Xhosas, Basothos, etc.) of networks, it is not rare to see drug shipments first transiting a mostly carry out the domestic trade in dagga.The international country and then coming back in smaller batches in order to be cocaine trade in South Africa and Namibia seems to be in the sold on the domestic consumer market. In Zimbabwe, for in- hands of members of European (Germans in Namibia), Middle- stance,it is obvious that large-scale mandrax and heroin traffick- Eastern (Israelis, Lebanese and Syrians), and West African ing is a virtual monopoly of members of the Indian/Pakistani (Nigerians and Ghanaians) communities. community, just as in Mauritius, while cocaine is the preserve of White traffickers who supply White Zimbabweans and tourists. Immigration, a recent phenomenon, has compounded the Black Zimbabwean traffickers have been historically shut off from real or perceived links between ethnicity and drug trafficking in sources of "hard drugs"; they deal in cannabis and above all in the region, especially South Africa. Indeed, the barriers between other goods such as stolen vehicles,gold,diamonds,etc.,through the communities go together with the extreme mobility of peo- networks inherited from the time of conflict.The same is true for ple.The South African economy,especially its mines,has exerted the mostly Black former freedom fighters of Namibia. a power of attraction on workers from foreign countries for some time. According to the Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria, In Zambia,many present - day mandrax - trafficking rings have between 2.5 million and 4.1 million illegal aliens live in the historical roots in the networks that used to supply the ANC and Republic of South Africa;the World Bank estimates that there are the Pan-African Congress (PAC) anti-apartheid forces with the around 5 million; the South African Police state that there are 8 drug starting in the mid-1980s and perhaps earlier. However, it million; most South Africans seem to think that there are too seems that initially large-scale mandrax trafficking between South many. These immigrants mostly come from Lesotho, Africa and Zambia was organised by Indian/Pakistani networks al- Mozambique,Swaziland and Zimbabwe.But after Europe closed ready accustomed to international smuggling. Before its borders to African immigrants, there has been an additional methaqualone was banned in India in the mid-1980s, business- boom in immigration from outside southern Africa. Newer mi- men bribed officials in Zambia (and other countries) to order large grants have arrived from Central and West Africa, especially the quantities of mandrax, then a medical drug, which was then Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC — former Zaire),Ghana and smuggled and sold as an illegal substance to consumers in South Nigeria. This mobility generates its own trafficking activities: Africa. There is little doubt that senior figures of the Zambian those that accompany the populations (cross-border smuggling Government and security apparatus provided cover and help to of both men and goods), those that allow them to cross borders ANC and PAC traffickers. Not much seems to have changed with (false official documents,passports,etc.),those that facilitate their the election of a new president in 1991; Zambia has retained its integration or survival (informal transnational trade, drug traf- standing as a major,perhaps the main mandrax-trafficking hub in ficking and street dealing, etc.).

FORMER NEXT 116 Chapter 5 In most countries in the region, Nigerian traffickers have be- said,became a problem due to the opening of borders to foreign come established as significant cocaine importers and distribu- immigration after the end of conflicts(30). tors.In South Africa itself,Nigerians are widely blamed for the recent rise in crack and cocaine use.While there is no question that Conversely,members of targeted and/or mostly economically Nigerian traffickers are active in distributing cocaine and crack deprived communities view the police as an oppressive force and on the South African and other regional markets,they are not the are reluctant to collaborate with it. Many even view crime as a only ones.But as recent immigrants from outside the region,they way to offset inequalities in wealth that are — often rightly — have become convenient scapegoats on whom to blame the perceived as a consequence of the unequal access to resources southern African drug problem(28).Thus, two-thirds of the illegal that was enforced under apartheid. In South Africa, non-Whites immigrants serving jail sentences in South Africa are Nigerians. often refer to those who held political power during apartheid, In 1993, they were accused of importing more than 50 per cent and still retain much economic and administrative power,as "the of the cocaine seised in South Africa.This is symptomatic of an- Boere Mafia",betraying the perception that what bonds them to- other aspect of the drug/ethnicity relation — perception. Racial gether is ethnicity and crime.Afrikaners are in a majority among differences and distrust are,of course,primarily a problem of per- the officers of South Africa’s drug police (SANAB), where corrup- ception,but this has specific consequences for law enforcement. tion is high. An ethnic-African diamond smuggler and former Adapting Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous words,it seems that in south- freedom fighter interviewed in South Africa said that stealing ern Africa "la drogue,c’est les autres".Indeed,the OGD study found from "big diamond companies" was not a moral problem for him that throughout the region there was a tendency among police since "they are owned by rich Whites who have stolen the land officers to blame the drug problem on foreigners. It seems that of my ancestors and (prospered) thanks to apartheid,while I have drugs could become a surrogate for racial discrimination — a a family to feed." way to perpetuate prejudice now that racism has become politically incorrect. In many ways, though not (yet?) with the same Ethnic differences impact on drug law enforcement in an- dire consequences, the regional situation, especially in South other way. In countries where police officers come mostly from Africa,is reminiscent of that prevailing in the United States where one specific community,it is hard for them to penetrate into traf- Blacks and Latinos make up the vast majority of those arrested ficking gangs run by members of another community.Thus, in on drug charges(29).This leads to the police targeting entire com- Zimbabwe, where police officers are mostly Black, OGD heard munities because some members are known or suspected drug them complain that there was no way they could make a serious (28) The Weekly Mail and Guardian of Johannesburg traffickers. The upshot is that traffickers who are members of investigation into trafficking networks run by Whites and reported the following words from an Afrikaner communities that are not viewed as ‘suspect’have more freedom Indians/Pakistanis because policemen were immediately identi- SANAB officer interviewed during a — rather bru- to act. OGD found that the scapegoats who were the most pop- fied. In Mauritius the mostly Indian police force say it is impossi- tal — drug raid in the Hillbrow and Berea districts (nicknamed "Little Lagos"):‘Wiese says over 80 per ular with South African police officers, were "Nigerians" or West ble for them to investigate the White and Chinese communities. cent of dealers are from Nigeria."It is only them,who African immigrants labelled as "Nigerian". Other popular scape- else? When South Africa opened up to the rest of the goats throughout the region, especially among ethnic-African world,the Nigerians started to bring the drugs" — T. police officers, are people of Indian/Pakistani and Chinese back- The Legacy of Conflict Amupadhi and M. Commandeur, Searching for a grounds.Indian/Pakistani and Chinese communities are present "guilty" Nigerian, Weekly Mail and Guardian, 18 April 1997. throughout southern Africa,mostly as traders and entrepreneurs, The main effect of the frontier that used to separate the (29) M. Mauer, Race to Incarcerate,Washington D.C., and the African communities generally resent them.In Mauritius, forces fighting for apartheid from those fighting against it was The Sentencing Project, 1999. The tendency to where the vast majority of police officers are of Indian back- to push regional governments,political organisations and entire blame drug problems on "outsiders" or foreigners is ground, the majority of people arrested for drug use and minor sections of the population to resort to illegal means.In southern far from being restricted to southern Africa or the dealing are Creoles (i.e. Blacks), most of whom are poor. In an in- Africa,at one time or another,the forces of history,whether eco- United States; it is indeed a problem OGD has encountered throughout the world,including Europe. terview with OGD, one police officer in Lesotho went as far as nomic,political or social,found themselves obliged to set up se- (30) Similar comments were made by police officers denying, despite compelling evidence to the contrary, that his cret supply routes, "bust" embargoes and use all kinds of illicit in Swaziland and Zimbabwe. compatriots had anything to do with drug trafficking, which, he activities as sources of funds and intelligence on the opposition,

FORMER NEXT 117 Chapter 5 or merely in order to survive. If we take 1961 as the start of the In the post-conflict era, the smuggling and underground apartheid struggle and the end as the 1994 election of Nelson money networks,both intra-regional and international,continue Mandela as President of South Africa, it means that for thirty- to operate, but now mostly for generating personal profits for three years a civil war prevailed in the country.This is more than their operators.Additionally,the poverty in which the majority of enough time to deeply ingrain what are now viewed as ques- southern Africans live has led many to rely on illegal activities in tionable practices, but what were then perceived as necessary order to survive(31). Largely as a result of decades of conflict, the acts in order to wage the war.The civil war in South Africa had frontier between what is legal and what is not has been blurred spill-over effects in neighbouring countries. The forces of the in the minds of many people,both rich and poor.Below is a list of South African police engaged in Namibia and Rhodesia made the illegal activities that started or intensified because of the con- alliances with professional smugglers. Likewise, in South Africa flict. itself,the police became used to recruiting criminals whom they turned into surrogates in charge of countering the ANC’s and Ecstasy manufacturing SACP’s influence in the townships. In Cape Town especially, the In late 1996 and early 1997, SANAB dismantled three labora- gangs became the zealous and self-serving auxiliaries of Pretoria tories producing ecstasy-type stimulants in the Johannesburg with which they negotiated almost total impunity.Moreover,be- area. The third police raid made the headlines after Wouter cause they were trained exclusively for political repression, Basson, a cardiologist, was arrested while he was trying to sell South African police officers, like many counterparts in the re- 1,000 ecstasy tablets on January 17, 1997. Basson headed a top- gion, were almost completely ignorant of investigation tech- secret chemical research programme set up by the South African niques and judicial procedures.This reduces considerably their Defence Force under the cover of a seemingly private firm called ability to confront organised drug trafficking networks today.In Delta-G Scientific.Although at first the firm was owned by the mil- numerous southern African countries, courts and magistrates itary,it was privatised in 1991,it seems mostly to the benefit of rel- face similar problems. atives and friends of senior South African military officers.Another Delta-G employee, Dr Johan Koekemoer, a former research man- The methods used by anti-apartheid forces have also con- ager for the firm, was also arrested in possession of ecstasy in tributed to the "criminalisation" of the societies and institutions January 1997. In an interview, Koekemoer declared that he re- of southern Africa. By encouraging popular violence as of the ceived instructions in the early 1990s from one of his superiors to mid-1980s and until it won the election in 1994 (murders of po- manufacture 1,000 kg of ecstasy crystals(32) — enough to produce lice and municipal officers and traitors) and launching campaigns hundreds of millions of ecstasy pills. It has also been alleged in of civil disobedience (boycotts of rents and services), the anti- connection with the Basson and Koekemoer case that the South apartheid movement also contributed to the disregard for the African military manufactured mandrax during the 1980s(33).In a law which still prevails in a portion of the Black and Coloured 1997 testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,a se- population,especially the young.The weapons distributed to the nior military officer declared that the South African military’s ANC militias in the townships in the mid-1980s are now used to stockpiles of "drugs" had been dumped into the sea in 1993. A commit crimes. Badly demobilised, with no or few prospects of claim many South Africans find hard to believe,wondering where getting a job, many militiamen in large cities joined criminal the military’s stockpiles really ended up.South African officials fa- street gangs and trafficking rings.Likewise in KwaZulu-Natal,the miliar with the case said in 1997 that the investigation would militias of the Inkhata Freedom Party (IFP), taxi companies, and show that the manufacturing and sale of illicit drugs was a major (31) See the section on cannabis above. cannabis and arms smuggling networks are closely connected in source of funding for the secret chemical and biological warfare (32) Brummer,S.:Secret chemical war remains secret,in the townships.The problem of the integration into society of the research programme of the South African Defence Force in the The Weekly Mail and Guardian,23 August 1996. former freedom fighters is not only acute in South Africa. In 1980s,while it is suspected that the South African military intelli- (33) E. Koch and D. Fleming, Bizarre experiments at SADF research firms,The Weekly Mail and Guardian,15 Namibia and Zimbabwe, civil societies also demand either jobs gence service has marketed some of its drugs abroad. It is to be December 1994; C. Oppermann, Prosecutors ecstatic or pensions for the former guerrillas as a means to reduce crime. doubted whether what really happened will ever be made pub- as Basson's buddy talks,ibid.,27 June 1997. lic.The post-apartheid government has decided not to disclose

FORMER NEXT 118 Chapter 5 some documents or make some testimonies public on grounds RSA and expanding in neighbouring countries. Mandrax use is of national security(34). reported as increasingly prevalent in Botswana,Lesotho,Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but indications are Mandrax that it is restricted to richer drug users,at least for the time being. Methaqualone,the active ingredient in the medical drug that was sold legally in South Africa under the brand name Poaching "Mandrax", is a non-barbiturate depressant derived from quina- By the late 1970s, South Africa had become the pivot of ille- zoline.It was synthesised for the first time in 1951 and marketed gal trading in ivory and rhino horns,with the blessing of,and en- as a sedative and hypnotic (under the brand name "Quaalude" in couragement from, the military. In 1975, South Africa started by the United States). It was banned in South Africa in 1974, but encouraging large-scale poaching in Rhodesia to bankroll its India continued to produce methaqualone until 1983.After that anti-guerrilla operations in that country.The strategy was then date, clandestine laboratories set up mainly in the Mumbai extended to Angola and Mozambique in order to finance the de- (Bombay) area supplied the now underground South African liveries or arms and other supplies to the guerrilla movements consumer market,which became the world’s leading buyer of il- backed by Pretoria, UNITA and RENAMO, respectively. Military legal methaqualone by the mid-1980s. In the late 1980s to early units were specially detached to transport the goods while the 1990s, enforcement in India, a drive by increasingly numerous companies in charge of marketing them in Southwest and gangs in South Africa to break free from their suppliers in Southeast Asia enjoyed total government protection. This en- Mumbai, and perhaps the establishment of the chemical/bio- couraged poaching in neighbouring countries such as Namibia logical warfare programme of the South African military (see and Swaziland, through which much of the exchanges between above),led to the setting up of laboratories in or nearer the main South Africa and Angola and Mozambique, respectively, were consumer country — South Africa. Labs were discovered in transiting. Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia. In 1987,the South African authorities in Johannesburg dismantled Gold and diamonds what was then the largest clandestine methaqualone lab ever According to the South African Chamber of Mines about 30 found in the country.The police claimed it could produce 20 mil- tonnes of gold (6 per cent of annual production of some 520 lion pills a year and reported the seisure of 14 million pills. In tons) is stolen every year,costing the industry some US$310 mil- 1995, four labs were destroyed in South Africa, most of them on lion a year. Gold trafficking is probably as old as the gold mines farms in the Pretoria area.That same year, one lab was disman- of the region,and the networks dedicated to it can be extremely tled in Mbabane, the political capital of Swaziland, and one in sophisticated. One case, which became known in September Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. In September 1996, South 1996, is a good illustration of their ingenuity.The ring that was African police acting on information from foreign authorities broken up had made more than US$206 million by buying hun- found a large laboratory in a farm in Lichtenburg, North-west dreds of kilograms of gold waste a week stolen from mines in the Province, near the border with Botswana.The precursor chemi- Johannesburg area. The waste was stored on a farm in cals had been imported from the United Kingdom and Germany, Mpumalanga Province, then shipped by air to Mozambique, the chemist was British and the sponsors Indian. Four mandrax where bribed officials provided false export documents.The gold labs were dismantled in Zambia in 1993, 1994 and 1995, and in was then transported back to South Africa,where more false pa- July 1997,the Zambian authorities announced the destruction of pers were obtained to air-freight it on scheduled flights to a lab in the capital, Lusaka. In spite of such police action, there is Geneva,London and Frankfurt.Finally,the gold was melted down every indication (including declarations of South African traf- and sold. Apart from this type of sophisticated organisation — fickers to OGD) that the consumer market for Mandrax is sup- usually involving "respectable" White business investors using plied from labs located in southern Africa itself. A recent devel- the scheme as a way of moving money out of the country — opment worth mentioning in this respect is that currently the Indian-origin traders seem to dominate the traffic. (34) Brummer, op.cit. consumer market seems to be simultaneously shrinking in the

FORMER NEXT 119 Chapter 5 The diamond-smuggling centre of southern Africa is Cape In parts of South Africa and Namibia, diamond smuggling is Town, where the routes from the Angolan, Namibian and even a veritable industry that supports small towns and whole com- Congolese (DRC) fields converge.Many underground and legiti- munities. Indeed, to justify their presence and launder their mate diamond cutters are based in Cape Town.Their job is to cut money, most diamond buyers own shops, bars, restaurants, ho- and polish the rough gems brought to them by clients including tels, etc., in the towns. Although they are usually money-laun- smugglers, usually for a fixed fee. Portuguese and Israeli nation- dering schemes,the businesses actually provide the service and als, Boers and Cape Town Malays are very active in this trade. It are useful to the community. In towns such as Ondangwa and should be noted that the giant diamond company De Beers in- Oshakati, in northern Namibia close to the border with Angola, directly encourages the trafficking, as it systematically buys diamonds,dollars,marijuana and cocaine are used as currency by stones on the black market to maintain control over it. Angolan traders who cross the border in their lorries in order to buy foodstuffs and other basic goods in the dozens of super- Diamond-trafficking networks can be sophisticated and markets aligned along the main road. Diamonds are also smug- deal in millions of dollars.Depending on the quality of the dia- gled out of Angola through western Zambia, while the monds, the price at which they can be sold once they are cut Democratic Republic of Congo is also a major exporter of smug- and polished can be up to fifty times that at which the stones gled diamonds,in particular through northern Zambia.By all ac- were bought and a minimum of three times. Typically, dia- counts,diamond-smuggling is a sophisticated,multimillion-dol- monds are stolen from mines in South Africa, Namibia and lar industry which enables hundreds of thousands,perhaps even Angola by mine-workers who sell them to buyers in the towns millions,of people in western and central southern Africa to earn located near the mines. Some workers whose job in the mine a living. allows them to steal easily are paid a fixed monthly salary by the buyer to whom they bring regular supplies of gems.Others Money laundering work on a piecemeal basis; they steal only occasionally when an As a direct consequence of economic sanctions,South Africa opportunity arises, and negotiate the price of the stolen dia- has for many years welcomed foreign capital, even of dubious monds with the buyer every time.The small-town buyers then origin, with open arms. In 1987, the head of military intelligence sell the "rough" stones to buyers from outside (many of them acknowledged during a visit to the United States:"we have relied from Cape Town and Johannesburg) who have the infrastruc- heavily on foreign capital, and as a consequence South Africa is ture and contacts necessary to cut and export the gems abroad one of the few countries in which no control of any sort is im- to Europe (Antwerp,London,etc.),the Middle East (Israel),India posed on foreign capital.Any foreigner may,without restrictions, and the United States (New York), mostly by air. Some have either bring money into South Africa — whether it is dirty money made deals with security officials at major airports in South or not is of no importance — or send it out of the country"(35).It Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg) who are bribed on a can be deducted from the general’s statement that what we now monthly basis in order to allow the smugglers out of the coun- term money laundering has been practised on a large scale in try unhindered, but since diamonds are small they are not dif- South Africa for quite some time.The Bank of South Africa itself ficult to conceal.Alternatively,buyers in the small towns can de- turned a blind eye on fraud and currency trafficking for the ben- cide to take a risk and have the stones cut and polished efit of the state.For the most visibly questionable deals,it became through their own contacts in Cape Town,thus keeping a larger the habit to rely on intermediaries experienced in the subtleties share of the profits.They then sell the diamonds directly to ex- of international finance (see below) and to conduct operations in porters in Cape Town. Some mine-workers (OGD met one in offshore centres such as the Seychelles and neighbouring coun- Windhoek,the capital of Namibia) actually plan their careers as tries(36).The growth of the leisure industry (casinos and luxury ho- (35) This is an off-the-record conversation tonight,in diamond smugglers by saving money in order to study and tels) in the "bantustans", especially Bophuthatswana (now in Nose Week, April/May 1987. (36) See S. Ellis, Africa and International Corruption: then coming back to work in the mines,but then with a "better" North-West Province),was also part of the political will to encour- The Strange Case of the Seychelles, African Affairs, job, that is, one that will make it easier to steal and take the di- age money laundering. 1996, pp.165-96. amonds out through the mine’s security.

FORMER NEXT 120 Chapter 5 More often than not,in intelligence services and in the upper Money laundering is not the preserve of South Africa. It can echelons of government a past as a "fighter" has meant impunity truly be qualified as a regional industry.In Zambia,for instance,the so far. In South Africa the links between organised crime and the freeing of the financial sector in 1992 led to an explosion in the government were not always terminated after the downfall of the number of banks and foreign-exchange offices operating in the racist regime.To a greater or lesser extent, similar situations pre- country. Many Zambian banks belong to traffickers while others vail in many southern African countries.Some Western European specialise in laundering for a fee.Most banks do not ask questions gangsters have done "favours" in the past to one or several of the about the origin of deposits that are made,though in 1996,a bank former warring parties,and it can be suspected that they continue in Pretoria refused a transfer of US$2.3 million from Lusaka, the to provide "special services" now.An example worth mentioning Zambian capital. According to the Zambian drug police, banking in this respect is the Italian mafioso Vito Palazzolo. It shows that establishments export sums reaching millions of dollars every year, organised crime’s "know-how", in this case "financial wizardry", and for the majority the origin of the money is unknown.The exis- can be useful even after the end of apartheid.A prominent mem- tence of a huge number of foreign exchange bureaux in Zambia ber of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and the former banker of the "Pizza can only be explained by money laundering,as their profit margins Connection" international heroin network,Palazzolo is wanted by are very low or even non-existent, police and journalists report. police in Italy. Now calling himself Robert Von Palace Additionally,numerous black-market currency changers are active Kolbatschenko and claiming aristocratic German lineage, in the country. After the liberalisation of its financial market, and Palazzolo lives in Cape Town.He was first granted a residence per- given the lack of control over its overdeveloped financial sector, mit in South Africa in 1987.The permit was renewed several times Zambia has become a regional centre specialising in the intro- after that, most notably at a 1993 cabinet meeting presided by duction of profits drawn from regional (drugs, arms, stolen cars, President F.W. de Klerk while at the time an international arrest etc.) and international trafficking (drug revenue from Asian and warrant was pending against Palazzolo,who is said to have been European organised crime) into the international financial system. a major financial contributor to De Klerk’s National Party.Palazzolo Additionally,traffickers based in Zambia often own businesses that eventually obtained South African citizenship in 1995.The Italian they use for trafficking drugs and for laundering revenue.Methods authorities report that he manages the foreign investment port- include over-invoicing imports, under-invoicing exports and the folio of top Sicilian mafiosi, including Toto Riina, the jailed "capo provision of fictitious services, all of which are "classic" methods di tutti capi" of Cosa Nostra.Through a company registered in the that have been used by politicians across Africa and their partners British Virgin Islands,Palazzolo allegedly owns diamond mines in in the developed world for decades (at the detriment of the coffers South Africa and Angola,while his total investment in South Africa of African state). Even if precise data are lacking, the concerns ex- and Namibia alone is reported at 25 million rand (about US$5 mil- pressed by both the Zambian Government and the opposition, lion). Palazzolo is known to own property and do business in and by foreign embassies in Lusaka,make it clear that the Zambian Eastern Cape Province.The Eastern Cape is one of the three main economy is highly "doped". marijuana-producing areas of South Africa and it is an ANC electoral stronghold.Palazzolo is reputed to enjoy high-level contacts Another example worth mentioning here is Mauritius. in the present-day South African intelligence community, and to Although Mauritius qualifies as an off-shore financial centre be acquainted with leading South African gangland figures such where major international banks have opened branches to take (37) (37) For a journalistic portrait of Rashied Staggie and as Rashied Staggie . On 27 August 1997 the head of the advantage of the rather lenient regulations applying to the fi- his gang (Coloured),the Hard Livings,who are major Presidential Investigation Task Unit, a Cape Town based under- nancial sector,off-shore activity is probably not the main money drug distributors in the Cape Town area, see Who cover police squad investigating organised crime answering di- laundering channel on the island.Admittedly,some money-laun- is… Rashied Staggie,inThe Weekly Mail and rectly to President Mandela,wrote Palazzolo a letter assuring him dering goes on in the banking and financial sector and in the free Guardian,June 16,1998;and Thiel,G.:Cape drug war that the South African authorities had found nothing reprehensi- port and textile industry.But Mauritius,with its flourishing trade, heads for the polls, in ibid., 4 April 1997. (38) P.Smith, "Nats were in bed with Mafia boss", The ble in his activities.This is probably why the South African police industry, real estate and gambling industries, seems to be an Weekly Mail and Guardian,5 February 1999;A.Duffy,Top did not bother him when an Italian judge requested his immedi- ideal target for drug money for other reasons.The combination cop backs mafia man,inibid.,12 December 1997. ate arrest in February 1998(38). of highly profitable economic activities and a complex bureau-

FORMER NEXT 121 Chapter 5 cracy provides the informal conditions and structures needed for economy as a whole. It involves the only locally produced drug an inshore money-laundering system to operate.For a start,it fi- plant that generates significant profits — cannabis.In a region of nances the political parties.Thus,under the cover of politics,both the world rich in illicit trading in foreign currencies but poor in luxury properties and housing projects have been built.This sys- cash and which is playing with arbitrary exchange rates and en- tem has many advantages and is functioning in other parts of the demic inflationary trends, cannabis may sometimes serve as a world, such as in Netherlands and French possessions in the "hard currency" for mass transactions often carried out across Caribbean(39). The drug money, along with income from other borders and involving basic goods that do not give rise to ex- types of trafficking, such as the sale of fake branded goods ceptionally large profit margins. To compound the problem, (Lacoste, Gucci, etc.) to markets like South Africa and Europe(40), cannabis may be bartered for other illegal goods such as arms helps to pay for the setting up of major infrastructure through and stolen vehicles.A practice that first appeared in the late 1980s private investment,thereby releasing state funds while boosting is now gaining ground — bartering stolen South African vehicles facilities for the tourist trade (marinas,shopping malls,luxury ho- in neighbouring countries (Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, tels).The money collected goes mainly to Asia (India, Pakistan, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe) for drugs (mandrax, cocaine and Malaysia, the Emirates, etc.), usually through informal channels, marijuana) or arms, which are often imported in another stolen such as hawala, an informal means of making cash payments automobile.This trade seems to have been started by the anti- widely used in the Indian/Pakistani business community (for le- apartheid movements, but it now involves a wide range of play- gal and illegal purposes) and comes back via the more formal ers. As Stephen Ellis explains in the case of South Africa: "At local bank transfers in the form of foreign investment. Direct foreign level, armed militia and the gangs try to control a piece of territory investment enjoys considerable tax advantages in Mauritius. to make a profit from it.Some of them...forge alliances with parties Alternatively, instead of returning to Mauritius, the money may or individual politicians, and with businessmen who know how to "settle" in similar investments (especially tourism and planta- import what they need most — arms and ammunition — and who tions) in neighbouring countries such as Tanzania (Zanzibar),the buy what they have to export, especially marijuana and stolen au- Seychelles,South Africa,Mozambique and Zimbabwe.The Asian tomobiles."(41) In Lesotho,cattle,which are an essential element of communities in countries of the region (South Africa,Tanzania, the Basotho culture, can be stolen in South Africa and bartered Zimbabwe,etc.) use the same system at home,using Mauritius as for marijuana produced in Lesotho. Conversely, cows stolen in a staging post to other destinations, mainly emerging markets Lesotho are sold for dagga produced in South Africa.Throughout and especially China. the region, it is possible to barter drugs or diamonds for almost anything, especially other stolen goods, such as shipments of beer,video machines,stereo equipment,etc.In one cannabis-pro- Barter ducing region of southern Zambia, sources told OGD that the cannabis industry got started by urban dwellers who came to the While "classic" money-laundering schemes involving the rural area in order to barter locally produced marijuana for basic movement of capital are rife in southern Africa, one of the par- goods such as radios, clothing, bicycles, etc., which the farmers ticularities of the regional trafficking and money-laundering needed but could not find in the shops or were too expensive for scene is barter, which appeared as a structural force to OGD. them.Additionally,it is becoming increasingly common for southern African marijuana to be bartered for synthetic drugs like LSD Barter,this method of informal merchant transactions,gener- and ecstasy,produced in Europe.In this respect,a particularly sig- ates laundering mechanisms at various levels.The simpler level, nificant arrest was made in Cape Town in September 1996,when (39) See Saint-Martin Only Gives to the Rich, The where profits are distributed throughout the populations in- a former discothèque-owner-turned-ecstasy-trafficker was held Geopolitical Drug Dispatch, N° 87, January 1999. volved in the drug trade, only rarely reaches banking establish- in connection with a shipment of 2.5 tonnes of cannabis in a (40) For example,Mauritius appears in customs statistics as one of the main suppliers of cheap imitation ments, but it is significant because of the sheer number of peo- United-Kingdom-bound container.Netherlands and British own- goods to France,alongside Thailand and China. ple involved. However, it is diluted within the whole of the ever- ers of discothèques and clubs in South Africa are reportedly heav- (41) Ellis, op.cit. expanding informal transactions that characterise the African ily involved in the "club drugs for dagga" barter trade.

FORMER NEXT 122 Chapter 5 While the profits arising from transactions where cannabis is produced cannabis serves above all for intra-regional exchanges sold or bartered can occasionally be significant,in most cases they and low-level money laundering, cocaine, heroin and mandrax are not, involving small networks made up of local players (poor are increasingly used within large-scale money laundering farmers, local businessmen or civil servants, etc.) and they rarely schemes or as payment for southern African commodities, such reach the banks. Nevertheless, the money is laundered by pro- as gold,diamonds,ivory,rhino horns and even tobacco and tea(42). ducers, traffickers and street dealers. As far as these people are The map of trafficking activities that OGD has drawn from field concerned, "money laundering" means improving everyday life information clearly shows that drug trafficking networks have fol- though it may also result in small investments: a bicycle, a car, lowed in the steps of other, older, channels. building material,etc.While the massive laundering of the money arising from cannabis production and sale at retail level seems to The southern African drug trafficking/consuming scene can be characteristic of survival strategies,there is a barter variant us- be divided in three broad drugs-for-regional-commodities "areas ing similar methods by which far larger amounts of drug money of influence": the "East coast"’, which is characterised by the are laundered through their introduction into the international prevalence of mandrax-or heroin-for-gold barter deals banking system.Here,drug money buys high value-added goods, (Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania); the "West Coast", which which in turn become currencies.Such goods — gold,diamonds, is the cocaine-for-diamonds area (Angola, Botswana, Namibia non-ferrous metals,as well as cash crops such as coffee and tea — and Zimbabwe); and the "mixed countries" (Lesotho, Malawi, have been involved in high value-added transactions for a long South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia), which, due to a mixture of time and their well-oiled networks are often protected by state in- factors including their geographical location,the resources they terests, highly placed individuals and interests located in other have available and their ethnic breakdown,export both gold and continents such as Europe and North America.To give just one ex- diamonds in exchange for both cocaine and heroin. ample, several African countries appear as diamond exporters while they are not producers.In others,there is a gap between the On the east coast of southern Africa, heroin connections amount of carats they claim to export and the carats actually reg- seem to merge into gold and methaqualone smuggling net- istered as imported on the diamond market in Antwerp.The in- works that link Africa to the Indian subcontinent via the Arabian ternational community seems to accept this state of affairs as a peninsula. From Zanzibar to Durban, the Africa of trading posts fact of life. However, back in southern Africa, drug traffickers buy and Indian Ocean ports is now taken advantage of by drug traf- diamonds on the black market and then sell them to licensed fickers.The latter use the "services" available in southern Africa dealers who usually buy stones from independent producers and and benefit from its "free ports" which have been outlets for diggers.Both practices use barter but at completely different lev- commodities exported from the eastern coastal region of south- els,and they have an infinity of variants within which a high value- ern Africa and landlocked countries ever since the Arabs estab- added good plays the role of a currency every time it is part of a lished trading posts in what is now Tanzania (and Kenya) in the network or an industry enjoying relatively good "protection". fifteenth century. Therefore it is no surprise that Tanzania, Mozambique,Mauritius and,to a lesser extent,South Africa today act as transit countries for hashish and heroin from the Indian Conclusion subcontinent. At the same time, in the three former countries heroin has become the most widely abused drug with a very low The ethnic barriers, "criminal" infrastructure and barter cus- street price comparable to street prices in Pakistan and India. (42)The wealth generated within Southern Africa by toms inherited from the decades of conflict that have torn the re- cannabis exports to the rest of the world are viewed gion apart play a significant role in today’s drug trafficking scene By contrast, cocaine trafficking activities seem to be more as marginal compared to the profits accruing from in southern Africa.These three factors, which can combine and linked to routes,networks and trafficking structures originating in diamonds, gold, ivory and rhino horns.Two exceptions to this general rule are Lesotho and Malawi interact in a variety of ways,seem to determine to a large extent the Americas (particularly Brazil) and Europe. Thus, Angola, where cannabis is a major,perhaps the main,earner the shape of the drug scene in the region, especially as regards Namibia and South Africa seem to be very involved in interna- of export revenues. international trafficking and local consumption.While regionally tional cocaine trafficking as they are in diamonds,arms,rhinoceros

FORMER NEXT 123 Chapter 5 horns and ivory. Because of this, wholesale and street-level cocaine prices are much lower than those on the east coast and closer to those prevailing in some West African countries such as Ghana,Nigeria,Senegal,etc.

Drugs are flexible geopolitical commodities that are instrumented in many ways by a multitude of institutions,organisations and individuals in order to meet a variety of needs and adapt to changing circumstances(43). According to this chapter, southern Africa is a perfect illustration of this general rule. Indeed, it looks as if the profits derived from the drug trade seem to offset the losses resulting from the normalisation of a vast share of underground exchanges due to the end of most regional conflicts and of the embargo against South Africa. In order to remain in business, the age-old smuggling networks, have adapted to the new geopolitical situation by using drugs as currencies since, due to prohibition, they are high value-added goods that can therefore be exchanged for other legal or illegal products. The fact that many of the largest networks are run as a partnership between major political and economic forces in the region and counterparts elsewhere suggests that the new role of Southern Africa as a transit and consumer region for drugs and money laundering centre is more than a passing phase. Rather, it seems that alongside diamonds,gold and plantation commodities drugs and drug profits have become major channels facilitating Southern Africa’s integration into the "globalised" world economy.

(43) Laurent Laniel, Drugs and Globalisation: An Equivocal Relationship,in International Social Science Journal, N° 160 — Globalisation, June 1999.

FORMER

124 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 In this context, O’Donnell’s (1999,p.30) thesis that due to the DRUG TRAFFICKING IN lack of horizontal accountability, media coverage and public THE BRAZILIAN protest might serve as social catharses appears helpful:"But these AMAZON events do not necessarily trigger appropriate public procedures, even if they may be required by existing legislation.When, as often Regine Schönenberg happens in the new polyarchies, there is a generalised feeling that the government repeatedly engages in corrupt practices,the media tend to become surrogate courts."

Bezerra (1994) reflects on a "national concept of corruption"(4) pointing out the perservering lack of division between the private and the public sphere as revealing for the margin of the social acceptance of illegal activities.The popularisation of corruption on the one hand and the stigmatising of individual "cases" on the other hand might coincide peacefully. As has been observed by Barbara Christophe (2000, p. 16) in her studies on Georgia, one of the advantages of this mechanism resides in the possibility of acting relatively openly and,at the same time,being Introduction able to get rid of co-actors who violate the unwritten laws of redistribution of illegal income. In Brazil,a prominent part of the current public discussion fo- cusses on corruption cases as an obstacle to national develop- The entry of illicit products like cocaine and weapons intro- ment(1). A normative debate on criteria for "good governance" duces a higher risk as well as higher profits; consequentely,rules contrasts with almost daily reports of new atrocities being un- of redistribution change. To identify the mechanisms of such covered either by the parliamentary investigation committee on changes is essential for the understanding of the actual social drug trafficking or on the judiciary.For about two years,detailed space organised crime pursues at a given time and place. reports on the involvement of politicians in activities of organ- Certainly, social acceptance depends on the frequency of illegal ised crime are being published by the leading Brazilian print me- practices within legal business and institutions.Their visibility fa- dia. One of them(2) giving evidence on the connection of the cilitates the acceptance of criminal activities,the construction of Farias-family (P.C. Farias was involved in the corruption cases of illegal frameworks and trafficking of illegal products.The forms (1)The same is true for the global level — corruption President Collor in 1992), and a criminal organisation led by of interaction of processes of social transformation with illegal and money laundering has been one of the key-is- Maranhense politicians in co-operation with the gang of the al- activities in regions of traditional occupations and in regions of sues at the UN-ECOSOC — meeting in Geneva as ready imprisoned ex-federal deputy Hildebrando Pascoal(3). recent occupation are distinct.Both provide evidence on the di- well as at the OECD/FATF — meeting in Paris,both in alectics between the receptivity of structures and processes for the end of June 2000. If it is true that "corruption scandals can be a sign of a country’s new criminal activities such as drug trafficking and their specific (2) Ricardo Miranda and André Dusek, A guerra do Maranhão, ISTOÉ, 2 October 1999. growing political maturity". (Rose Ackerman, 1999 p. 225), Brazil is transformation through such an integration. (3) Those spectacular cases,the arrest of the (ex) fed- definetively on the right path.But,there is nothing new about the eral deputy Hildebrando Pascoal/Acre and the murder public repercussion of those cases; on the contrary — it is about In Brazil,the social organisation of distribution,redistribution of the Judge Leopoldino Marques do Amaral/Mato the same debate with similar arguments which accompanied the and exchange is being performed within formal and informal in- Grosso, are being detailed in a paper of Roberto impeachment process of President Collor in 1992,or on a regional stitutions which are both rather dominated by private, personal Araújo. (4) Marcos Otávio Bezerra,Corrupçao — Um estudo level,the Rondonian cases of Olavo Pires and the Rabelo brothers, than by abstract, impersonal norms. The interaction between sobre poder público e relaçes pessoais no Brasil,Rio Christian Geffray described in his enquêtes on Rondônia in 1997 public institutions and private networks are far-reaching and per- de Janeiro, 1994. and 1998. missive,until vital and well organised interests are being violated

NEXT 125 Chapter 6 — then, there will emerge a new "case" of corruption or of or- towards the PF in a conflict with SENAD.Altogether,there are two ganised crime.Yet, at a closer local look, nobody is surprised, al- underlying problems affecting the position of the PF: one is the most everybody knew about the practices and the actors a long continuous rivalry between democratic and military-rooted seg- time before and are willing to provide more details on "the case". ments within the institution and the mute pretension of the mil- If we proceed from the idea that trafficking of influence is intrin- itary to guarantee also the country’s internal security;the second sic to Brazilian society, one key-question is, why certain "cases" problem is caused by the construction of the Brazilian political are being denounced and others not — or, how the fine line of system itself: there are no stable coalitions or an established social acceptance is being negotiated and under which circum- party-system in the European sense to rule the country,but par- stances this consensus will be re-negotiated. liamentary lobbies who negotiate their vote each time according to the interests of their clientele.When it comes to budgetary One effect of globalisation consists in the blurring of values decisions, a kind of bazaar involving a complex barter-system of and regulatory competences which, originally locally and na- economic and political interests is being set up.The only two fac- tionally embedded,nowadays tend to be a "blend" of traditional tors that could contribute to an interest in fighting for a reason- and imported elements. Thereby, already precarious system- able police budget are public security and the demands of the links(5) as minimal prerequisite for accountability of public acting international community.Both issues are not high up on the na- tend to be additionally weakened. For example, the implemen- tional political agenda — on the contrary,the consequent strug- tation of environmental and labour legislation within the gle against violence and corruption would affect some of the rul- Amazonian context demands a lot more than divulgation and ing classes immediate interests; demands by the international control; unintended side-effects might provoke unemployment community rather provoke negative patriotic feelings than sup- and corruption — an environment advantageous for the dissim- port police action. Consequently, budgets and staff of the com- ination of organised crime.Altogether,I have proceeded from the petent drug department (DRE) of the federal police have not premiss that there do exist significant differences regarding the been raised since 1992 and even the budget of the PROAMAZO- local dynamics of social transformation in regions of traditional NIA programme, which was already granted in 1997, had not occupation with long-dated and traceable institution-building been freed until summer 2000. In late September 1999, the con- processes and in pioneer regions with intense migration and a trol-base ANZOL in central Amazonia, near Oriximiná was inau- permanent excess of labour. gurated, an act which can be regarded as mainly symbolic since it has been funtioning precariously for several years already. These are some of the topics that guided my field research Another national hope, which is being discussed widely in the and which will be addressed again in the conclusions of this re- media, is the implantation of SIVAM,a geographical information port. First answers might help to identify starting-points for the system (GIS) to control the whole Amazon region by satellite. comprehension and hence the regulation of organised crime There are three problems associated with this:the installation of from a local and regional perspective. Regarding national im- the ground stations at county level will take years,since many of pacts of international "war-on-drugs" policies, the promises of the assigned localities do not even have an electricity supply; the Brazilian President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso at the within the methodology of data-collection the specific necessi- International Drugs Conference in New York in July 1998 led to ties of the PF were not included; they will have to make do with the creation of a new public institution called SENAD (National side-products and, even receiving the data, for example, on the Anti-Drugs Secretariat) with mainly rhetorical functions (with no illegal movements of planes, the PF will have no additional budget or investigative competences).Nevertheless,its creation means (planes,jeeps,boats,staff) or budget to make use of such led to an extensive debate on whether the Brazilian military information by practical investigation activities.Summing up,the should or should not co-operate with the federal police (PF) Brazilian commitment to combating drug trafficking in the (5) When I mention system-links I am referring to and/or foreign military to keep common borders drug-free. Amazon is merely rhetorical. Guillermo O’Donnell’s concept of "horizontal ac- Furthermore, it provoked the fall of the Brazilian Minister of countability", O’Donnell, 1999, pp.29ff. Justice,José Carlos Dias in April 2000 over the question of loyalty

FORMER NEXT 126 Chapter 6 Real impacts of international processes can be observed con- Methodological Remarks cerning the increase of "taxes and tributes" the Colombian guerrilla-group FARC and the paramilitary troops (AUC) are demand- Interdisciplinarity and intercultural co-operation were the ing the utilisation of their infrastructure such as airstrips and pas- starting-points as well as guides for this research project. Since sage over what they regard as their territory. According to PF cir- 1994,to engage in research on cocaine trafficking in the Amazon cles,growing tendencies of weapons-for-cocaine-deals as well as appeared fascinating to us(10): the criminalisation of social inter- first the cocaine laboratories on Brazilian territory can be at- action fostered by the rapid extension of illegal networks and tributed to such price hikes. Massive control activities of "tradi- vast amounts of money as well as growing,culturally disembed- tional" routes to the USA via Venezuela and Mexico change the ded drug consumption on the trafficking routes,indicate as well route of international cocaine trafficking towards the Carribbean as accelerate the disintegration of local social structures. and Europe via the Brazilian Amazon and re-exporting to the Coinciding with local characteristics of "paternalistic forms of so- United States via Europe (the balloon-effect)(6). cial reproduction", the Amazon offers a laboratory for analysing the criminalisation of social transformation processes. Since September 2000,the Brazilian Government has reacted to the US-financed "Plano Colombia",(7) which intends to fight co- Empirical methods and theoretical approaches are naturally a caine production, trafficking and the guerrilla-group FARC.The combination of Brazilian,French and German anthropology,soci- so-called Operation Cobra intends to secure Brazil‘s borders ology and political science, since its origin and its progress were against all sorts of foreign intrusions, whether by cocaine traf- shaped by exchange and discussion of ideas and proceedings fickers,the Colombian military or US advisers.In the context of a from different scientific disciplines and perspectives — a ten- renewed national sovereignty discourse, the PF tries to liberate dency that has been reinforced by our integration into the MOST the above — mentioned PROAMAZONIA budget, the military drug-researching network. tries to accelerate the installation of the SIVAM(8) programme,re- animating the debate on the costly Calha Norte border-highway At the same time as it is inspiring to work in such contexts, project, and the contestation of indigenous reserves at the bor- interdisciplinary and intercultural communication and scientific ders of Colombia and Venezuela(9).The effects of such regional accountability depend on the traceability of empirical methods politics are strengthening anti-democratic forces, not only in and theoretical approaches. Qualitative field research is rare in Colombia itself, but in Brazil. political science; few methodological models exist within this discipline.In the present case,anthropological methods of par- Besides the war on drugs, further global interests like car- ticipating observation (Malinowski, 1922), sociological life-his- bon-dioxide reduction and protection of indigenous people are tory analysis (Della Porta, 1992) and constructivist science of impacting on national and local power negotiations.The accel- knowledge approaches (Berger and Luckmann,1969) are being eration of global interdependence often leads to the evasion of applied and reflected on the philosophical framework of the existing regulatory frameworks, the gradual disappearance of German ethnologist, Schmied-Kowarzik (1993), who generally formal and informal institutions which made social control pos- deals with the understanding of other cultures, and the post- sible and consequently, to increasing corruption.Whether the colonial critique of Western-orientated science by the Indian, (6) Andreas, 1995. adaptation of forms of representation, institutions and proce- Homi Bhabha (1996). (7) U$1.3 billion military aid. dures to the new demands and conditions succeed or fail, de- (8) Large satellite-surveillance-programme. pends on the regulatory capacities of the state and the integra- The actual field research (1998-2000) started with a series of (9) Estadão, 22.03.01: Quintão condena demarcação tive potential of the respective social environment. expert interviews with members of the judiciary and police in de área Ianomâmi de Tânia Monteiro Brasília, Belém and Marabá; being continued by biographical in- (10)The Amazonian team was composed by Christian Geffray U,French sociologist;Roberto Araujo,Brazilian In this field report I intend to illustrate possible courses of such terviews of imprisoned cocaine-dealers in Amazonian prisons anthropologist;and Regine Schönenberg,German po- interdependent transformation processes by giving local and re- and of members of their respective social and economic envi- litical scientist. gional examples of cocaine trafficking. ronment, and concluded by a detailed case-study of one tradi-

FORMER NEXT 127 Chapter 6 tional Amazonian locality. As Della Porta (1992, p. 188) states: ternalistic forms of social reproduction are the norm, although "(life-stories) produce better knowledge concerning that series of modern breaches like NGO activities,international projects and phenomena which lie in the margins between private and public, modern communication opportunities are gradually altering real and imaginary, subjective and objective. They permit under- this pattern. standing not only of individual psychology, but also of group phenomena; not only movement ideology, but also movement coun- Originally, Brazil was conceived as a classical transit country terculture; not only organisational stories but also the dynamics of for Andean cocaine.This thesis cannot be sustained,neither in re- small networks.Where other technics offer static images,life stories gard to the criminal networks nor to local consumption patterns: are better suited to describe processes". the trafficking of cocaine has been neatly integrated into other informal and illegal activities and "pasta base" dealing in The life-story of José T. was chosen as the backbone to this Amazonian cities has become commonplace,presenting a grow- chapter since it provides an adequate guideline for understanding social problem. ing the course of a classic Amazonian "business" carreer and some reasons for its end.The different stages of his curriculum The two states I will refer to are Amazonas and Pará. give evidence on the logical framework of business decisions and Amazonas’extensive borders with Colombia and Peru,and Pará, the selection of business partners.Following up interesting hints with its busy ports and national highways, are impossible to in his curriculum,the situation in remote regions at the Brazilian monitor.Both states have numerous clandestine airstrips;the for- borders like the Vale do Javarí on the border with Peru and ex- mer can be regarded as the entry point and the latter as the exit amples like the case-studies of Leonardo Mendonça and Luis for vast amounts of cocaine from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. Carlos Maya will be highlighted as possible drug-trafficking variations.

The criminal story of the fisherman João de Deus from Abaetetuba is enlightening on the important role traditional systems of loyality and indebtedness can play,concerning the gradual involvement with illegal activities.The Abaetetuba case-study will serve to illustrate the complex interaction of numerous factors which might create an environment favourable for organised crime in a region of traditional occupation.

Description of the "Scene of the Crime" The Brazilian Amazon, known as "Legal Amazon", covers a huge area (4.8 million km (Map A) and is inhabited by 18.2 million people with diverse cultural backgrounds where there is an enormous wealth of natural resources.State involvement in the Amazon since 1966 (Operation Amazonia) has been described as developmentalist and modernising, a pretension that could never be fulfilled.In the traditional hinterland in particular,there

is still a low level of monetisation and the economy works within MAP A traditional systems of indebtedness.Even in frontier regions,pa-

FORMER NEXT 128 Chapter 6 The State of Amazonas (Map B) with its capital Manaus is the For our field of observation these reflections are important biggest state of Amazonia Legal (1,584,445 km), sparsely in- concerning the social space and possible regional support for habited (2.1 million/71 per cent urban and 29 per cent rural) the PF and Federal Justice.The lack of sufficient budget, suffi- and less affected by deforestation than other states like cient qualified staff and institutional support from Brasília cre- Rondônia, Mato Grosso and Pará. Its huge and remote national ates a certain dependence on local, regional and international forests and indigenous reserves are only accessible by boat or co-operation. plane and are almost uncontrollable.

The state of Pará (Map C), an important locality for the activi- The Life-story of José T.(12) ties of Luis Carlos Maya, the "base" of Leonardo Dias Mendonça and the case-study on Abaetetuba disposes of approximately 1.25 Migration to,and economic interest for,the Amazonian hin- million km and approximately 5 million inhabitants (59 per cent terland has always been triggered by natural resources such as urban and 41 per cent rural). Pará was the last state to be joined gold, rubber, precious woods and minerals. to the Brazilian Federation in 1824, which in 1835 provoked the Cabanagem war(11), which was lost in 1840.Up to the present, the In the early 1940s, the Brazilian Government started a cam- "traditional" Pará has possessed a strong cultural and conserva- paign to mobilise so-called "rubber-soldiers" to support US-rub- tive regional identity.On the other hand,aproximately 60 per cent ber demands during the Second World War.The great majority of of state territory is under federal jurisdiction,meaning,under the those who followed the call came from the already impoverished control of federal institutions, which are frequently controlled by north-eastern part of the country — so did José’s grandfather. the opposition to the respective state government. Considering Coming from Ceará all the way to the Colombian border near the background of a constant political and institutional competi- Tabatinga, he opened up a new rubber route, married a local tion between the state and the federation as well as a set of het- woman, raised twenty-five children and died at 105 years as an erogenous subterritories whose migrant population is engaged Amazonian.After the end of the Second World War people forgot in small-scale "independence-movements" (Tapajós,Carajás);pos- about the migrants and about the declining rubber prices.The sible political alliances are often unpredictable. far-away-region disappeared once again from the national Map and consciousness as had happened in the early 1920s after the end of the rubber boom(13).

In 1964, Brazil underwent a military coup and as a consequence a growing militarisation and centralisation of political power."Integrar para não entregar (Integrate instead of giving up)" became the Amazonian formula which initiated the construction of huge road projects like the Trans-Amazonian highway and the next wave of enthusiastic but disordered migration to (11) This war was directed against liberal reforms the region.By that time,José had already been born in Benjamin coming from southern Brazil. (12)The life-story is based on four interviews in 1998 Constant (Maps B-D), situated about one hour by boat from and 1999 in two Belém prisons. Tabatinga;his family was still surviving on the extraction of rub- (13) Currently,Tabatinga has 40,000 inhabitants and ber — even though his father had started to supplement the no economic alternative to rubber-extraction as family income through timber-felling. During his first years of arisen as yet. On the occasion of a visit in Tabatinga primary school, José lived with relatives in Colombia — this is in November 1999 the Govenor Amazonîno Mendes expressed the impotence of the state of Amazonas in why he is fluent in Spanish and maintains up to the present his combating drug trafficking in the region due to the old friendships all over Colombia. In 1969, back in Benjamin MAP B lack of economic alternatives (FdSP,21.11.00,p.17). Constant as a fourteen-year-old boy, he took up studies at a

FORMER NEXT 129 Chapter 6 Baptist seminary: the three years of all-round education which ployees:social benefits,health-security,grants for gifted workers’ he received there he counts as his major capital.In the 1970s he children, sports activities, bingo, etc., were common in their en- lived in Tabatinga, a city with a Colombian area called Letícia terprise. He revealed openly that he had copied the ideas from with an open border between the two countries.Already at that the large and well-organised cocaine laboratories in Colombia. time there were no jobs in Tabatinga and José worked as a shoe- Inevitably,this aroused the growing resentment of the traditional shiner until his entry to the army where he studied at the tech- power-elite who started to feel seriously threatened by the new- nical school (1977-80).From there,he passed directly to the pro- comers. In 1992, José stood as a candidate for a seat in the local ject department of CPRM, the national mineral prospection parliament and turned out to be the deputy of the county with company where he was employed for three years. During this the most votes.After the election,a big party was held in Jutaí in time,José became familiar with dozens of gold and mineral sites November and an allied politician addressed him as "a future in the Amazon, pilots, airstrips and timber reserves. Since CPRM mayor who will lead Jutaí towards modernity".This was the mo- had concerns all over Brazil,he learnt to travel,negotiate and es- ment for the Alfonso family to react,since they were running the tablish contacts with innumerable people until 1983. In 1984 risk of losing their political power and hence their economic José set up with his father and four brothers a joinery firm spe- base.On such an occasion provoking scandals like accusations of cialising in fitted furniture which was exported primarily to Peru drug trafficking and the recourse to old techniques such threat- and Colombia.During the next few years the family business ex- ening José’s family,sending killers etc.,were aimed at protecting panded rapidly, until the family had to "move on" due to "mili- traditional power structures. On 1 January 1993 José was pre- tary repression", the details of which remain unexplained. José vented from taking his seat in the local parliament when they mentioned several times that he constructed the first multi- burnt down the city hall to conclude their battle. By this time, storey-house between Tabatinga and Letícia, so one could sus- José’s family had fled to Manaus and he had already been ac- pect that "success" became too visible. cused of drug trafficking by the federal police (PF) in Manaus. Although José’s cousin was serving a sentence on the charge of drug trafficking in São Paulo and was quite well known in Brazil, Jutaí José declared his innocence, ignored the accusations and continued to carry on his commercial activities.In such cases "disap- Jutaí (Maps B–E) is situated at the Rio Solimões (67°/3°) and it pearing" is a well-known strategy in the Amazon which normally was as recently as 1960 that it became an autonomous munici- works out as thus:José set off to the remote Vale do Javarì region, pality.The major economic activity, the production of rose-tree- an indigenous reservation at the border with Peru,to extract tim- oil,had declined a long time before,and the family who formerly ber (illegally) and continued to sell it to his business-partner in extracted the oil had lived off public funds for decades:in a kind Belém, CIMAL a small timber company established more than of rotative system it was ruled by different members of the twenty years previously. At the beginning of August 1993, 75 kg Alfonso family from 1960 until 1996.Since public service was the of pure cocaine was found inside a CIMAL export load destined only means of monetary income of the whole county, being in for Spain and another quantity of 435 kg on a nearby farm. charge of the public administration was quite a powerful posi- Together with his Colombian and Brazilian business partners, tion.By the time (1987/88) José and his family established a saw- José’s story ends in the Americano prison on the outskirts of mill in Jutaí, the extraction of valuable trees was still in the very Belém. How could all this happen? And why is this story so re- early stages and was carried out mainly by "strangers" passing vealing in understanding the logic of cocaine trafficking in the through without leaving any benefits for the respective locality. Amazon? Let’s turn to the other side of the coin — the court doc- The family settled down, employed people, invested in machin- uments. ery and established trade relations with Manaus and Belém. Business flourished and José reported enthusiastically on the sys- From the point of view of the investigating federal police, tem of social redistribution they had institutionalised among the judge and the prosecuter, José is the strategic figure of the their staff,which in the early 1990s had grown to around fifty em- whole case. Being under PF observation during 1993 until his

FORMER NEXT 130 Chapter 6 arrest in August,he had travelled to Colombia together with his International Drug Convention of the United Nations (1988) an- Colombian co-defendants to manage the cocaine deal, organ- nounced the mainstreaming of the "war on drugs" under US ised timber for CIMAL,initiated the export activities of the small leadership(14).The latter resulted in the repression of Colombian timber company, being the friend of the pilot and the farm- drug cartels and the Colombian guerilla-group FARC(15).As a con- owner, mediated and escorted the respective meetings in sequence, cartels began to decentralise and to redirect their Manaus,Belém and Mosqueiro and apparently had travelled to trading routes from Venezuela to Brazil and FARC needed more Spain as well. Consequently, in the court documents he is arms and advanced their "taxes". named as "the intellectual author of the crime" — a charge that appears even more plausible on the grounds of his biography In Jutaí,a department in the centre of the state of Amazonia, exposed above. Disposing of all the necessary contacts and those developments went almost unnoticed, though their indi- abilities, José was also able to construct and communicate an rect, interacting impacts were about to transform local condi- authentic legitimation discourse of "modern,redistributive en- tions.Nowadays,Jutaí is surrounded by a whole set of indigenous trepreneurship" within an hostile environment of corrupt and and environmental protection zones (Map B–E).Since the begin- parasitic elites and state officials.The fact that there was one il- ning of the 1990s, as the consequence of growing environmen- legal product among the assortment of other items, which he tal control, the Brazilian PF and the Federal Environmental considered as negligible. José pleaded not guilty. Agency have reported a growing tendency of timber companies to either shut down or adopt even more illegal practices,such as Cocaine trafficking via Tabatinga/Letícia started approxi- bribing,timber laundering and cocaine trafficking.In addition to mately at the end of the 1970s when there was only one Brazilian paternalistic behaviour, such as the exchange of favours, and army camp to secure the borders and no further federal institu- clientelism, such as the buying of votes, there are now illegal tions.Indigenous reserves (Ticuna) were not yet demarcated and practices, such as bribing state officials to get an export licence timber extraction took place without environmental restrictions. for legal products, for example, timber, which were illegally ob- If even today the presence of the state is negligible and local tained, and criminal activities like exporting cocaine within the power is confined to the neat representation of immediate in- timber load.Since the socio-economic environment is mainly interests of a few families, one can imagine the situation twenty- formal and survival depends on personal networks, the sources five years ago. of legitimisation of informal, illegal or criminal activities are being nurtured by individual social and communicative compe- In 1984 the Brazilian abertura process ended years of military tences (McIllwain, 1999, pp.301ff.). dictatorship and resulted in presidential elections in 1985; the new Brazilian constitution (1988) led to the foundation of a Presumedly, José’s mistake came about within the tradi- whole set of new institutions and programmes.There are two tional environment of Jutaí where he failed to include existing noteworthy policy fields which have had a regional impact: power elites to his business system, which finally led to his ar- firstly,the acknowledgement of territory as well as formal rights rest. In the meantime, his family has returned to Benjamin guaranteeing the reproduction of a different life-style (Articles Constant and became involved in a new kind of internationally 231 and 232) leading to the demarcation of indigenous territory, triggered conflict. (14) From 1989,the Cold War arguments to justify ex- for example, near Benjamin Constant (Map D). Secondly, the tensive military spending in Latin America were sub- foundation of federal and regional ministries of the environ- stituted by the war on drugs. ment with the mission to implement the recently formulated Patchwork Regulation (15) It has been estimated (Blumenthal,2000) that that environmental law locally.The Brundtland-Report (1987) intro- 15 per cent of Colombia‘s coca-plantations are within duced the idea of "sustainable development" and drew atten- Where state regulation is being introduced in the Amazon, it the so-called FARC liberated zone of which is approximately the size of Switzerland. Taxes, protection- tion to the alarming losses of tropical forests;in 1992 those contends to happen incoherently. New institutions are being in- money and use of infrastructure account for an esti- cepts were reinforced by the UNEP convention on biodiversity stalled and new regulations and laws are being introduced ig- mated 40–60 per cent of the financial sources of FARC. and by the resolution of Agenda 21. In the same period, the noring system linkages with existing formal and informal regu-

FORMER NEXT 131 Chapter 6 latory institutions.This is true for traditional as well as frontier re- Vale do Javarí (Map D) on the timber sector, points to the fol- gions,albeit with different consequences.Such practice puts any lowing findings: the local population and federal government form of accountability at risk and often results in the construc- agents, for example, of FUNAI (indigenous matters) and tion of informal "bridges". Informal opportunities extend from IBAMA/Manaus (environmental matters) unanimously attribute the inclusion of social actors by innovative improvisations,which the criminal activities of drug trafficking to the timber sector might be formalised later on,to the creation of criminal solutions based in Benjamin Constant.Until recently,the timber sector of- like bribe systems and illegal economic alternatives such as fered one of the few regional economic activities that provided smuggling and cocaine trafficking. The phenomenon is not a comfortable income; consequently,political and economic life unique to the Amazon but quite common in regions that endure was dominated by the representatives of this sector. Labour rapid transformatory processes.Susan Rose-Ackerman observed laws, environmental protection laws, registration, restrictions in her book on the causes of corruption (Rose Ackerman,1999,pp. and reforestation regulations concerning timber extraction 227–8): "Many countries have both pointless business regulation were largely unknown or ignored.From the local "pioneer point that generates bribes and ineffective regulations in socially benifi- of view", nature is still abundant and is there to be tamed by cial areas such as environmental protection." brave men, and there exists no right whatsoever for outsiders to interfere in local matters; conflicts are being negotiated in closed shops,according to local power relations.However,since the early 1990s, international attention has been drawn to the environmental destruction of tropical forests.The already existing regional and federal environmental agencies(17) are being supported by various national and international programmes(18), and the results of regular monitoring activities are influencing Brazil’s image in the international arena.Obviously, the applicability of abstract laws through inexperienced institutions in remote regions, which are characterised by the absence of the state since their early days of existence, is limited. This is especially true,if fragmentated regulatory state activities tend to limit the few economic activities that still exist without offering alternatives. In the case of the researched region, the (16) March/April 2000. increase of environmental control led on the one hand to the (17) The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 includes a increase of the bribes to be paid to local environmental agents. very progressive environmental law and determines the foundation of regional (OEMAs) and federal On the other hand, many saw-mills and timber-traders started (MMA/IBAMA) environmental agencies. to supplement their activities with drug trafficking. Currently, (18) Some examples — 1988,Nossa Natureza; 1990: new conflicts are being caused by the application of federal

Plano Nacional de Meio Ambiente (PNMA);1992:PPG7 MAP D laws: again under the pressure and observation of the interna- (Programa Piloto para a Conservação das Florestas tional community, the process of regularisation of the indige- Tropicais Brasileiras);2000,Brasil Sustentável. (19) PPTAL — Protection of Indigenous People and Uncertainty and the lack of transparency of new institutions nous land,Vale do Javarí, (Map D) is triggering a low-intensity their Lands in the Amazon Region of Brazil,as part of and regulations can strengthen traditional power structures conflict. Contrary to former regional demarcation processes, PPG7,foreseeing the identification and demarcation and might also introduce new actors like, for example, federal this one is being conducted within a large international proof 151 indigenous lands. environmental agents to the locally negotiated equilibrium.The gramme(19), drawing much attention to the region. (20) "Demarcation,visits,control and the future mon- field research(16) of the effects of environmental regulations,the itoring-plan threaten interests of drug trafficking and of further criminal activities in indigenous reserves", installation of environmental protection zones and indigenous "Demarcação,visitas,fiscalização,o futuro plano de vigilância Euclides is the president of the representation of reserves at the Colombian and Peruvian borders, between ameaçam os interesses do narcotráfico e de outras atividades Amazonian Indians, COIAB. Tabatinga, Benjamim Constant and Atalaia do Norte, next to criminosas em áreas indígenas"(20) (Euclides/COIAB, 17 March 2000)

FORMER NEXT 132 Chapter 6 On the occasion of the identification(21) of the Vale do Javarí formed a tactical alliance in protest against the fact that federal indigenous reserve, in the state of Amazonas, on the Peruvian money is being used to limit local access to resources. In mid- border,by an interinstitutional team,a geographer registred var- March a large demonstration of fishermen which was alledgedly ious officially unknown airstrips on the demarcation map. The financed by the timber sector took place in Benjamin Constant. Manaus PF took note of that map and,in Febuary 2000 two of the At the beginning of July 2000, a base of the co-ordinating in- airstrips were blown up, in co-operation with the Peruvian fed- digenous organisation CIVAJA for the demarcation firm in the eral police and in the presence of the president of the federal in- south of Vale do Javarí was burned down by timber merchants digenous foundation, FUNAI. On this occasion, it was not possi- who did not even conceal their participation in the hostile act ble to convince an indigenous representative to accompany the since it was meant to be a warning.In May 2000,the Governor of operation since on former occasions the PF was not able to pro- Amazonas, Amazonino Mendes visited Tabatinga to inaugurate tect the involved parties after their intervention from local pres- a new,modern fish plant and fish market in order to create about sure (death threats)(22). 500 new jobs.On the occasion,he spoke about the insufficiency of this measure in combating the regional problems of under- "A P.F.arisca a vida dos índios querendo informações e depois employment and organised crime. Furthermore, he pointed out deixam eles sozinhos com as ameaças."(23) that Brazil’s membership of WTO puts at risk the continuity of the As regards the indigenous people from the area, they only Manaus Free Trade Zone on which the whole state of Amazonas trust the military in terms of protection,transport and aid,prin- depends economically. Due to the vulnerability of the cipally in cases of health emergencies — a view which was Amazonian ecosystem and its geographical remoteness, eco- largely confirmed by the commander of the local army battal- nomic alternatives are not easily at hand. ion(24).The military is responsible for border security but drug trafficking lies within the jurisdiction of the PF,and even though The purpose of this section is to provide a vivid illustration of (21) Identification is the first step in the process of trafficking activities do represent a threat to border security, possible unintended local effects of poorly adapted and inade- regularization of Indigenous lands in Brazil,the next there is no co-operation and not even any communication be- quately mediated federal or international regulation measures. steps are: Delimitation, Demarcation, Presidential tween the military and the PF of Tabatinga. If there is any be- In the absence of integration offers during processes of social Confirmation and Compensation,Registration.At the tween the institutions,it happens in Manaus or Brasília without transformation,the involved parties are looking for individual so- moment (07/00) the described area,Vale do Javari is in the third step of the process:Demarcation. affecting the daily local work.The same is true for the lack of co- lutions from the new legal system. At the same time, they often (22) Interview 13.3.00. operation between the local FUNAI and IBAMA, one accusing observe the social embedment of their strategies carefully. (23) "The Federal Police puts the life of indigenous peo- the other of corruption, and even for the co-ordination of the Thereby,new political and economic networks are being created, ple at risc — the want information and afterwards activities of the federal police in Manaus: although the control including new actors who are willing; anybody trying to resist is they leave them alone with the threats", Indigenous of environmental and indigenous protection zones is under being threatened.The observations of Jean Cartier-Bresson that representative, 13.3.00. (24) During a visit of the 8th Batallion of the IBAMA/PF, respectively, FUNAI/PF jurisdiction, operations are "Unfortunately,legal and functional networks favour the emergence Infanteria de Selva in Tabatinga, Captain Ronaldo being conducted separately,without recognition of existing lo- of illegal networks of corruption" (Cartier-Bresson, 1997, pp. 56f.) confirmed the friendly relations and showed me the cal connections. and "The illegal exchanges are integrated into a larger legal network hospital which was predominantly occupied by in- which is that of clientelism and the reign of favours." (Cartier- digenous people (16.3.00). Locally,the demarcation of the large area of the Vale do Javarí Bresson 1997, p. 55) are valid for the case described above(27). (25)Timber laundering means the act of illegal export of illegally extracted timber which is being re-im- is being understood as a further limitation of access to natural re- Regarding the researched timber sector, the integration of co- ported with false certificates — in this case from Peru. sources (timber, fish, game) and as a threat to illegal border-ac- caine production offered the only one viable economic alterna- (26) County-elections in october 2000. tivities like drug trafficking and timber laundering(25). In the con- tive to the illegal and expensive (bribery/transport) timber ex- (27) His thesis on the significance of social networks text of the recent elections(26), broad alliances have been formed traction.Currently,the defence of this strategy is provoking a lo- for the viability of illegal activities will be discussed over the resistance to federal interference in local matters. In a cal low-intensity conflict,(28) which is especially dangerous owing later on,analysing the Leonardo Mendoça case (see above). public session of the local parliament of Benjamin Constant on to the proximity of the US-Colombian war-on-drugs and the on- (29) (28) Cf.OGD, 1993, pp.: 255-64. the question of the regularisation of the Vale do Javarí in March going "weapon-for-cocaine-swaps" . (29) See next section. 2000,the candidates of the fisher’s colony and the timber sector

FORMER NEXT 133 Chapter 6 Leonardo Dias Mendonça When in 1984/85 gold-digging activities moved from Serra — the "Suri-Cartel" Pelada/South Pará to Itaituba/Lower Pará and the indigenous regions,Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol/Roraima, stable loyal- When Operation Tornado started in 1997, not even the ities between claim-owners, politicians and pilots were already Federal Police concerned realised they had discovered one of the established. Due to the gold-buying monopoly of the Brazilian most important connecting links between Colombian cocaine state, which has always been evaded, the whole activity is and Surinamese arms. After seizing a total of twenty-four small sourounded by adventurism,illegality and violence.On the other planes and 2.4 tonnes of cocaine(30),the PF was still trying to track hand, it provides one of the few opportunities for social ad- down the heads of the organisation,when in July 1999,informa- vancement and a fast accumulation of capital. tion about illegal deforestation led them to Belauto farm in São Felix de Xingú (Map G).There, by chance, they found an aston- Since Marabá is the base of the Mendonça gang as well as of ishing seventeen business registrations for construction firms, the parties concerned in the Luis Carlos Maya case(34) it would be petrol stations, air taxis and farms. Consequently, they put the useful to go back in history to understand the cultural, institu- owner of Belauto farm,Wilson Torrres Moreira, and his associate tional and political background of the southern Pará environ- Leonardo Dias Mendonça under surveillance(31). When the two ment. Marabá is often refered to as the "heart" of Amazonia be- were arrested in November 1999, together with fourteen other cause it accumulates all the problems and reflects the trends of suspects(32), an impressive business network, dependent on the a typical pioneer region. Historically, its occupation in 1892 had division of labour and modern communication technology was been favoured by the crossing of the Tocantíns, Itacaiunas and dismantled. On the foundation of trust, shared economic inter- Araguaia rivers; since the 1970s there has been a new incentive ests and values, this network had been involved in cocaine and for migration by connecting the national road, PA150 and the weapon trafficking (Mc Illwain, 1999). Trans-Amazonian Highway.From the very beginning,Marabá was a violent place: in the nineteenth century it served as an impor- "Cabe consignar,como bem o fez a Autoridade Policial,que todos tant starting-point for death squads,at least parts of its social or- os envolvidos travaram conhecimento inicial durante o auge da ativi- ganisation came about through the slaughter of indigenous dade garimpeira,especialmente aquela que irregularmente se deu no populations in the area.Thereafter,its expansion was determined Estado de Roraima,incidindo em áreas indígenas."(33) by a hierarchically organised extraction economy (rubber, pará- nuts), which always left a majority of seasonal workers entirely dependent on the caprices of a few patrons. Attempts to establish federal or regional state authority were made in the 1930s and in the 1970s, but up to the present day they have always (30) In five of the plane and cocaine seisures between 11/97 and 8/99, the name of Leonardo Dias failed. New institutions and their local representatives have al- Mendoça appeared explicitly. (Processo Federal ways been quickly absorbed by stable, clientelistic power struc- 1999.39.01.001560 -0 -Vol.I.) tures. For almost a century, the monopoly of violence remained (31) Observation and repeal of bank and telephone unchallenged in the hands of the big landowners and traders. secret. However,since the early 1980s,the gold-rush and the opening of (32) Eight pilots,four businessmen,two farmers,one lawyer. the large iron mine at Carajás have forced the traditional elites to (33) Processo Federal 1999.39.01.001560 - 0 - Vol. I, share power with nouveau riche adventurers,who have begun to p. 4 — "It is our obligation to put on record,as well as invest in local businesses and interfere in local politics. the police authorities,that all the involved parties first Additionally,professionals from southern Brazil have established knew each other during the peak of the gold-diggers’ new standards in terms of speed,flexibility and mobility defend- activities,especially the ones that took place illegaly in the state of Roraima,invading indigenous reserves." ing their company interests. Both, the gold-rush and the Great (34) See The Luis Carlos Maya Case,section Carajás Project induced massive migration to southern Pará. on page 191. MAP G Although the working relations connected with these new ac-

FORMER NEXT 134 Chapter 6 tivities were integrated into the cyclical logic of the region(35),the For a background to this excursion,let us go back to the con- existence of an abundant workforce provoked the violation of crete course of the Leonardo Dias Mendonça (LDM) case.To fa- the old-fashioned social contract, which was based on a long- cilitate the exposition of the sophisticated proceedings of well- term patronage logic of (unequal) give and take and was re- embedded,long-term,all-round criminal activities,the prerequi- placed with a violent short-term logic founded on crude ex- sites for such an organisation will be identified.Leadership/hier- ploitation. archy/trust, divison of labour/delegation/decentralisation and modern communication technology/informal communication From the mid-1980s onwards, the end of the local gold-rush networks are indispensable elements of sustainable legal as well and the construction of large projects was followed by increas- as illegal businesses. In this case, LDM guaranteed leadership, ing pressure on land resources and coincided with nationwide since he was responsible for the integration and supervision of debate and conflicts regarding agrarian reform. In the following all those involved: they were and still are bound to him by per- decade, Marabá received generous financial compensation for sonal loyalty.On this basis,a decentralised division of labour be- expropriated lands, which were supposed to be distributed tween different clusters of actors in different localities and coun- among the landless migrants,relocated traditional populations(36) tries was made possible.To guarantee the exchange of cocaine (35) For example: soil-preparing and planting and ex-gold-diggers.In fact,INCRA,the institution responsible for for weapons, transport was needed: being composed of a trust- (September - November), working in Carajás (December - April/rainy season), working in Serra agrarian reform, became the headquarters of a system of redis- worthy network of always employable pilots; discrete payment (39) Pelada (May - August/dry season). tribution of federal resources between the local elites, while the of the pilots ,a rotative system of buying and selling of small air- (36) Large projects, like the construction of the hy- municipality "took care" of the "distribution" of the financial con- craft(40), workshops to maintain the planes, to manipulate their droelectrical plant at Tucuruí or the iron-ore mine in tributions of the state of Pará. tanks(41) and black-boxes, the management of illegal petrol-de- Carajás provided millons of dollars for the region, posits on regular and clandestine airports,the management of a which were shared by old and new elites of southern Pará, see Schönenberg, 1993. It would exceed this context to go into details on the entan- "tax" or bribery system to ensure permanent access to numerous (37) Rodeo clubs,soccer clubs,Rotary,Lions,Catholic glement of important Paraense politicians with the described lo- clandestine and private airstrips, and, the management of nec- and Protestant churches. cal systems, with drug trafficking and national corruption essary information to connect the different elements with each (38) See also Bezerra 1994, pp.177-86. schemes;the intention of this section is to explain why southern other and with the further clusters. In the LDM case, Pilot Osmar (39) One flight from Colombia to Suriname is worth Pará continues to offer such a receptive environment for all vari- was the co-ordinator of that sector. He had known LDM "for a U$15,000. (42) (40) On the long flights from Colombia to Suriname, eties of illicit, illegal and criminal activities like the transfer and long time" as an owner of a gold-diggers' shop at Boa even changing planes, it is almost impossible to processing of cocaine, money laundering via public announce- Vista/Roraima.Being based in São Felix de Xingú,which is known avoid official airports.Official landings and take-offs ments,recruitment of dubious lawyers and of killers as well as for in southern Pará as headquaters for contract-killers, he worked are registered, therefore it is possible to trace the reinvestment of black capital. Only the existence of a broad po- as a pilot for ten years.Osmar is the owner of a private airstrip on movements by registration-numbers. litical consensus concerning the legitimacy of the corrupt prac- a nearby farm which is locally known as "a pista do Osmar"(43) and, (41) In Brazil, the size of aircraft petrol tanks and (37) petrol consumption are registered. tices and their embedment in social and religious institutions the co-ordinates of twenty-two further Amazonian airstrips were (42) Probably since 1986. The information in this explains the current dynamics of the political,economic and so- registred in his well-organised agenda... Furthermore, he pos- passage originate from O’scourt-deposition and that cial exchange (Cartier-Bresson, 1997, pp.50-3). sessed a petrol depot of 15,500 litres at the airport of São Felix(44). of his assistant Juarez in Marabá,on 18.11.99;Osmar Owing to court evidence (agenda),in 1999 he personally(45) refu- participated in the process as a chief-witness until Cartier-Bresson (1999, pp. 50-3) describes such a process as elled twelve flights to Suriname where the cocaine was dropped 14.1.2000 when he retracted his deposition. (46) (43) "Osmar’s airstrip". "the organisation of corruption by social networks then prevails into the water off the coastline . Afterwards the planes came (44) For one flight to Suriname approximately 600 and enables a real institutionalisation of procedures… The ex- back to "Osmar’s airstrip" where they were refuelled and main- litres are needed. changes of corruption are multidimensional in the sense that tained(47).At the beginning of the interrogations, Osmar acted as (45) Juarez, his assistant revealed that since June several types of exchange are accumulated within the same pro- a keywitness (18 November 1999); on 14 January 2000 he re- 1999 there were flights every 8-15 days, using dif- cess: material exchange, information exchange, sign exchange, nounced everything and in April 2000 he was suddenly released ferent routes. (46) A pilot received US$1,000 for one return flight symbolic exchange, etc. It is from this perspective that we have from Marabá prison. from Colombia to Suriname. stressed the hypothesis of a social exchange over that of an eco- (47) For this task he received U$3,000 a trip. nomic exchange."(38)

FORMER NEXT 135 Chapter 6 Another cluster of illegal activities was the wide network of as- charges.Getting more details on the entanglement of the sixteen sociated enterprises, some of them owned by LDM’s "dummies", accused would not necessarily explain more. Let us turn to the others owned by genuine business partners. LDM’s immediate chances and risks of modern communication systems for criminal business empire is composed of seventeen firms(48) and co-ordi- networks. nated by LDM’s business partner,WTM.There are three construction firms (Roma/Marabá, Impacto/Marabá and Piquete/Tucumã) "Pegou nota deix gado — Got note, left cattle"(50) which frequently participate and win in public announcements of Modern communication technology, especially satellite mo- the municipalities of southern Pará and of the federal institute for bile telephones,was a precondition,as well as a major weakness, agrarian reform,INCRA as a kind of permanent money-laundering for the organisation of the whole criminal undertaking.The co- activity; furthermore there is a real money-laundering firm, called ordination of multinational deals between Colombia, various FastMoney, "owned" by AM, LDM’s father-in-law, who is in charge Brazilian locations and Suriname,from a remote farm in southern of investments on the financial markets.The two machine shops Pará provides a major new opportunity. On the other hand, the (Torres & Souza Ltda/Tucumã, Comercial Alpa/Marabá) and the invoices and accounts of the various parties,which were investi- three petrol stations (Auto Posto Norte-Sul/São Felix do Xingú, gated during Operation Tornado, connected perpetrators who Auto Posto Gol/Marabá, Posto Serra dos Carajás/Marabá) are es- might otherwise have been treated as protagonists in isolated sential for the organisation of petrol and spare parts as well as for drug cases.In addition, the co-ordinates of the black boxes from money-laundering activities.The air-taxi enterprise, Gaviota Táxi the seised planes made it possible to reconstruct an important Aéro/Goiânia which is owned by LDM’s business partner and very part of the whole criminal network(51).The co-ordination of the close friend,Pedro is in charge of the buying and selling of aircraft communication with Colombia and Suriname was the exclusive and the organisation of business trips.The most important sector task of LDM. for organising and sustaining regional social embedment are cattle rearing and timber trading.WTM is the official owner of three farms, Vale da Serra/Tucumã, Caumé/São Félix do Xingú and Suriname: 1993 and 1999 Belauto/São Félix do Xingú, the last with approximately 50,000 head of cattle, a branch of the timber-firm Dragão Industrial First,Suriname struck me as an important trading-spot on the Madeira and headquaters of the whole criminal organisation. route from Colombia via Brazil to Europe in the context of the tra- Furthermore, they own the cattle-raising consultancy Versátil ditional river smuggling activities from Abaetetuba/Pará via the Central de Compras and, as the most important social element, coastline of Amapá to Suriname.This case will be taken up later LDM is companion of the rodeo club, Clube de Vaquejadas in this chapter. Carajás/Redenção which promotes vaquejadas, one of the favourite leisure activities of southern Pará.The cultivation of good Getting back to the LDM case: after the decline of the gold relationships with public servants in charge of placing public con- business in Roraima,LDM set up shops of gold-digging machinery (48) Folha de São Paulo, 25.11.99, pp.1–16. tracts takes place within these business and social networks; be- in Suriname and French Guiana and from 1992 he travelled to (49) See next section,"The Luis Carlos Maya Case". sides actual bribery,like in São Félix do Xingú where the payment Paramariba regularly. According to the deposition of the (50) Meaning: "Got the money, left the cocaine." — of bribes was discovered, it relies on the long-term exchange of Surinamese citizen,Bernardus Annaud Nauhu(52),who worked as a communication code, taped from the mail-box of a (53) pilot’s handset. favours. A further important professional group are the "family" translator for Dino Bouterse from 1993 to 1996,the weapons-for- (51) Processo Federal,1999.39.01.001560 - 0,Vol.VI. lawyers who normally maintain stable professional relationships cocaine deal was articulated in February 1993. The Diamonds (52) Deposition under the responsability of Officer within the whole judicial sector (courts,police,public prosecutors, Soccer Club at Paramariba served as a meeting-point for the in- deKok and Slobbe,27.04.1998 in Leiden,Netherlands. etc.), who send out and receive information, give advice, help to volved parties: The Brazilian gold-digger, Chapel, introduced (53) Son of Desi Bouterse,ex-president of Suriname evade legal proceedings and actually falsify documents.In the case Leonardo Dias Mendonça to Bernardus who arranged a meeting who was condemned in absentia in the Netherlands (49) (54) on drug charges in 1998. of Operation Tornado as well as in the case of Operation Holanda with Bert Mangal, the Indian owner of the Golden Dragon (54) In Suriname the business with informal credits the Marabá PF was not included in the investigations as in 1999 Restaurant, who took them to Dino Bouterse’s house. At the time, are under Indian domain. the director of the force was on suspension due to corruption LDM explained that he was working for the Colombian guerilla

FORMER NEXT 136 Chapter 6 group FARC, and that he was interested in exchanging AK47 and Colombia is concerned, there is no evidence in the court docu- FAL machine-guns for cocaine.The deal had to be confirmed with ments (surveillance-records/depositions) but interesting prelimi- Desi Bouterse, ex-President of Suriname and Melvin Lindscheer, nary results of ungoing field research(58). Approximately, since the chief of the Surinamese secret service. After a few meetings dis- early 1990s a growing number of gold-fields were opened up in cussing exchange-rates of cocaine (U$2,500 per kg) and weapons, the jungle of Suriname. At the beginning of 2000, approximately transportation and security schemes, the first deal(55) was wound 18,000 Brazilians were working in those gold-fields,many of them up in the first half of 1993.Unfortunately,we can only speculate on with old gold-digging experience. According to the observations the development and frequency of this business connection in the of a colleague, numerous clandestine airstrips were built next to following years. During the period of surveillance of LDM and his the French Guiana border and are being used by the Surinamese gang in 1999, flights were registered three to four times a month military and the gold-diggers (Map H).Presumedly,at least parts of from Barranco Minas/Colombia(56) (Map A), to the seafront at the weapons are "branched off" Surinamese army stocks as was Paramariba of an estimated volume of 200 kg per flight(57), where mentioned by the Brazilian federal police as well as in the deposi- presumedly, the cocaine was dropped in rubber sacks on the tion of Bernardus in Leiden.The remoteness and illegality of the seafront. As far as the question of how the weapons might get to Surinamese gold-fields in connection with the gold-digger and pilot networks apparently make these airstrips appropriate loading sites for weapons.

The main protagonist of the next case is of Colombian origin and enters the Brazilian network via Tabatinga. Nevertheless, there exist several interfaces(59) with the above-described case: the registered starting-point of the illegal load is Barranco Minas/Colombia, the operational bases is a farm in southern Pará, both founded an enterprise in Georgetown/Guyana, and, last but not least,Leonardo Dias Mendonça and his gang ended up in the same prison at Marabá as Luis Carlos Maya with his ac- (55) Due to the deposition,it was a matter of ten AK 47s, seven FALs, one RPG-rocket launcher, four ma- complices. chine-guns (Minimi Gold) and ammunition in exchange for 100 kg of cocaine. The Luis Carlos Maya case: "without torture" (56) On 15 October 2000, the Colombian Air Force If there is no Brazilian "manager" at hand to articulate the nec- (FAC) destroyed a small aircraft heading from Brazil essary co-operation, the leadership of a Colombian professional to Barranco Minas with a heavy load of arms, presumedly for the FARC.(El Tiempo,Bogotá,16.10.00). who sets up a joint-venture in Tabatinga, Manaus or elsewhere (57) Federal Court Documents,Process 1999.39.01. represents a viable alternative. Especially, in cities next to the 001560-0. Peruvian or Colombian border,joint-ventures are commonplace (58) To mention the following I have the authoriza- and there do exist special agencies to handle the exacting bution of the field researcher concerned, who for se- reaucracy. curity reasons wishes to remain anonymous until his field research has been concluded. (59) On the occasion of another visit of Marabá it will From the beginning of 1998,the Brazilian federal police con- certainly be possible to identify further interfaces ducted an exercise called Operation Holanda,which culminated reading the court To mention the following I have the in the imprisonment of more than twenty persons from five authorisation of the field researcher concerned,who countries(60) on 22 June 1999. A truely multinational gang with for security reasons wishes to remain anonymous until his field research has been concluded documents multinational contacts and enterprises was caught at a remote of both cases again. ranch, the Fazenda Panorama, 79 km from Rendenção on the (60) Brazil, Colombia, Paraquai, Guyana, Canada. MAP H road to Santana do Araguaia in southern Pará where they had in-

FORMER NEXT 137 Chapter 6 stalled a cocaine laboratory with the capacity for the distillation opened up the possibility of keeping track of those involved in of 15 tonnes per month (Map G) this case. The head of the criminal organisation, Luis Carlos Maya came to Brazil in spring 1998 from Germany where he vis- Referring to the title of this section,the first detail to mention ited friends after seven years’ imprisonment in Suriname on is the external financing(61) of Operation Holanda,which enabled drug charges.Obviously alerted by the seisure of the plane and the PF to install a neat surveillance system and an excellent tak- a Colombian arrest warrant against him,he decided to set up a ing of evidence for more than a year.The citation, "without tor- cocaine laboratory in the Brazilian Amazon and to transport ture" refers to an interview with one informant who expressed his pasta-base directly from Peru,avoiding Colombia.According to relief that torture was not necessary to take the accused to trial several interview partners and investigation reports, this deci- because the competent institutions disposed of sufficient means sion was also due to the extreme elevation of "taxes" by the to execute their mission. Colombian FARC.Partly relying on old friends and partners and partly on new acquaintances, Maya managed to set up three In March 1998 the Amazonian Federal Police seised a small enterprises,in Tabatinga,Manaus and Georgetown,to organise plane (PT - OEA) which was parked in Parintíns (Map B) with the purchase of chemicals and other items from São Paulo,their seven tonnes of cocaine on board, the plane had been aban- transport to southern Pará and the purchase of a ranch in doned and the tank had been converted to take on more petrol southern Pará;the activities he developed between March 1998 than registered. Reading its black box it could be discovered and June 1999 were closely observed and documented by PF that it came from a certain clandestine airport in Colombia near agents and constitute the prosecution material at the federal Barranco Minas (Map A) which led to the imprisonment of sev- court of Marabá(62). Looking at the biographies of the fourteen eral Colombians by the Colombian police and,at the same time, accused,the majority have been involved in drug trafficking before: for example, the owner of the fazenda had already served a five-year sentence in Rondônia in connection with the murder of Rondonian Senator Olavo Pires in 1996.

What is so special about the Luis-Carlos Maya case? Reading piles of process documents and police reports, talking to the PF in Marabá,Manaus and Belém,to federal judges,public prosecutors and all kinds of members of Marabá society it appears that the case offers in its variety one model for the integration of the single elements that appear in other cases,such as the setting up of Brazilian/Colombian joint ventures (import-export), in Tabatinga and Manaus, with professional consultancy — even laying claim on SUFRAMA-subsidies(63), the theft of small planes and the involvement of gold-field pilots,the setting up of enterprises in Guyana and Suriname,contact with transportation networks from São Paulo, the purchase of chemicals in São Paulo and the utilisation of localities within a supposingly "safe" polit- (61) The informants contradictedeach other about ical context such as southern Pará. Operation Holanda was car- whether the DEA or the CIA financed the operation. ried out without any involvement of the Marabá PF until the day (62) Especially interesting were the bits and pieces MAP C of arrest,because the superintendent was on suspension due to that were found in the pockets of the accused,which corruption charges and the institution is believed to be "assimi- pointed out interfaces and numerous national and international contacts. lated to local rules". (63) Free Trade Zone in Manaus

FORMER NEXT 138 Chapter 6 In Marabá, the police, judges, prosecutors and members of Brazilian drug-trafficker who was caught with 250 kg of cocaine, the local society demonstrated no surprise concerning the di- João is a typical representative of one category of trafficker: un- mensions of the case — on the contrary,discussing it,they came or underemployed people who by chance live in a region which up with numerous further examples of well-embedded criminal became a transit route,this among other reasons,because it suf- activities in the region, and pointed out those who were doing fers economic difficulties and therefore provides sufficient col- the money laundering(64),how involved the defence lawyers were laborators who cannot reject the job. in local corruption cases and that it was highly probable that the gang would escape from the precarious Marabá prison before Abaetetuba(66) is a small lowland community situated 60 km the case came to trial.Already on 26 October 1999,there another south of Belém; being surrounded by innumerable small islands 680 kg were discovered at a fazenda near by, in the county of makes transport control quite an impossible task.Nowadays,fish- Santana de Araguaia. ing is one of the few legal sources of income;since the beginning of the twentieth century the community has supplemented its income by various forms and items of smuggling and has con- Summing-up… stituted a proper environment for illegality.Since the definte decline of cachaça-production(67) in the late 1980s, cocaine traffick- The fact that the LDM-case and the Luis Carlos Maya case ap- ing has been induced to more "traditional" cigarette-smuggling pear here in a drug-trafficking context should not obscure their structures as an upgrade of the basic income of the riverine lo- significance for the broarder understanding of the specific dy- cality. namics of the observed regional transformation processes.They serve as examples for potential consequences of long-lasting, "Todo mundo está envolvido em Abaeté — não da para es- asymmetric forms of social organisation in pioneer regions,where capar"(68) the constitution of a modern state, in the Weberian sense, has never existed. Its substitution by solid criminal networks, conse- "Ninguem comenta o tráfico na cidade — nem os cigarros. O (64) At the end of September 1999, the French citi- quently, leads to the criminalisation of social transformation pro- pessoal tem medo de morrer por falar muito ...ninguem informa so- zen, Serge Fabre was arrested in Mosqueiro on the (69) charge of cocaine trafficking to France; he was the cesses. bre onde alguem mora em Abaeté." last of a gang composed by José Laurindo Filho and André Baez who were arrested in 1994 for trafficking The next two sections deal with the complex interaction of Additionally,to his regular fishing excursions,João sometimes cocaine to France and exporting black pepper (di- factors transforming a traditional Amazonian city into a major worked on transport-ferries from Manaus to Belém, when "fish- rectly and via Suriname).Serge Fabre is shareholder transit spot for cocaine.Since the traditional local society reacts ing was weak". Like the majority of the fishing population of of the Big Ben pharmacy chain which is suspected of money laundering as well as he person who is differently to the impacts of social transformation than that of Abaeté, for many years João had worked "for somebody", this said to do the money laundering in Marabá. a frontier region, the insertion of criminal activities represents means on a boat owned by someone else.When he was caught (65) Interview on 01.07.1998 in the APAC/Belém distinct patterns. in 1993,he had for a couple of years actually owned a small boat prison.Case:transport of 250 kg cocaine from Ponta called the Venenoso(70). Even though he never managed to be- de Pedras to Vigia by boat;final destination:Surinam, come an autonomous fisher,but continued to depend on a boss João de Deus was released in May 2000. (66) Data on Abaeté will be exposed in the Case- The criminal story of João de Deus(65) to finance his fishing expeditions.The understanding of this sys- study on Abaetetuba-Pará, on page 00 below. tem of structural indebtedness it is fundamental to undersand- (67) Sugar-cane spirit. João de Deus is a modest fisherman,40 years old and born in ing the mechanisms of gradual involvement in smuggling and (68) "Everybody is involved in Abaeté Abaetetuba (Maps C - F). He is a member of the Z14 fishermen’s trafficking. The Venenoso has a loading-capacity of up to four — it is impossible to get away." association. By the time the interview takes place, João has al- tonnes;this is sufficient to stock the yield of ten to eighteen days' (69) "Nobody talks about trafficking in the city — not even about cigarettes.People are afraid they ready been in jail for five years, has been recently transfered to fishing-expeditions; during this time he can have returns of might die for talking too much… Nobody informs the first therapeutic resocialisation unit of the State of Pará,APAC, R$7,000,of which R$4,000 account for the share for the three oth- you where anybody lives in Abaeté." where he is in charge of the kitchen. In spite of the fact that his ers,leaving R$3,000 for himself.R$3,000 is not enough to finance (70) Poisonous. appearance does not at all correspond with the image of a the next expedition since he has to buy food, petrol, oil and to

FORMER NEXT 139 Chapter 6 leave some money for the family in Abaeté.Due to this fact,João, When discussing about the motives and the difference be- just like the majority of small-scale fishers has a permanent tween cigarette smuggling and cocaine trafficking,João did not debtor,Carlito who works as a balançeiro(71) at the Ver-o-Peso mar- perceive any.He stressed that he was never involved in cigarette ket,in Belém.Carlito always finances João’s expeditions just as he smuggling before whereas almost everybody in Abaeté is in- "helped" with the aquisition of the boat in the first place; after- volved, even the mayor who possesses five large commercial wards he supported the maintenance of the Venenoso and hence fishing-boats. possesses the purchasing monopoly of the fish João might catch. "Abaeté está manchado"(73) This system relies on loyalty but leaves considerable freedom: for example,when a fishing-expedition in the high-season of cat- João justifies his acts by the fact that he was indebted and fishing in Santarém does not work out, João would stay at the with his "weakness"concerning the offer of R$50,000, dreamt of lakes and start selling others’ fish to Santarém as an intermedi- opening up a small supermarket in Abaeté.His only regret is the ary. On one of these occasions he "met someone" in Santarém position of his ex-wife: Dona V., a waitress in a well-known bar in and got friendly with him; sometimes they went out drinking Belém who separated from him on moral grounds. Proceeding beer together.Talking about financial difficulties and the neces- from this biography,I undertook a case-study in Abaetetuba with sity to have the Venenoso converted,João’s new friend (X) offered the intention of discovering the interdependencies between to advance him the money for the "conversion" in Belém. economic decay and drug trafficking. Uncomfortable with the fact that Carlito had already financed his fishing expedition which did not work out well, he accepted the Case-study: Abaetetuba — Pará offer of his new friend. In Abaetetuba, the sheer number of factors contributing to the social transformation of almost all sectors of economic life A few month later, the Venenoso had already been "con- without the addition of any significant new legal activity, is ex- verted", João’s new friend asked him the favour of transporting ceptional.Combining these processes with the historical and ge- "something" along the coastline of Amapá — he told him that at ographical smuggling predisposition of the small town,the pre- the same time he could engage in fishing.Preparing the expedi- sent situation ceases to be surprising. tion, there were double-bottoms installed, "to pick up pigs in Marajó".When 4,000 litres of petrol were stored on board, João asked where they were going."Perhaps to Suriname" was the an- Excursion swer and João did not insist. He travelled with his crew to Vigia where he was to receive new instructions; when his boat broke To get into the spirit of the researched locality, which is said down due to a minor technical defect; he rang up X who imme- to be a major transit and distribution plot for cocaine,lately arms diately appeared and bought the missing part.On this occasion, and ammunition, as well as smuggled cigarettes, three con- João asked where they were going and what they were about to nected episodes will be related. transport.Now,X told him the truth,offered him R$50,000,which was the equivalent of seven fishing expeditions, and calmed his In late November 1998, two days before the celebrations of fears. As an alternative, João was offered the possibility of lend- Conceição, the city’s patron saint, which has taken place every ing his boat for one week but he did not like that — moreover he year since 1745,the population of Abaetetuba burned down its thought it was too late: "Já não tinha mais jeito."(72) city parliament, law-court and the mayor’s official residence. What triggered off the violence was the accidental killing of an After X had left,João cooked some crabs for his crew,went to adolescent who happened to belong to an important "trader" (71) Weigher. his hammock and when he woke up the federal police were al- family in town, by a military police officer.The general state of (72) "There was no way out." ready on board;since they had a sniffer dog they found the mer- revolt against the all-too-common police violence was directed (73) "Abaeté is stained." chandise immediately. by the leading protagonists of cigarette and drug smuggling

FORMER NEXT 140 Chapter 6 using bribery and a discourse of demagogy against the three After a preliminary study the previous year, in 1999 an in- powers of the local state.Immediately,the federal judge issued depth case-study(80) was undertaken concerning the economic arrest warrants against nine well-known members of society(74) history,the social life and the internal and external factors caus- who fled instantly(75). ing social transformations as well as of the composition of society which determines the result of such transformations.What The bishop of Abaetetuba, Dom Flávio used the occasion of will be presented here is a synopsis of the internal and external the holy week to preach three times a day against drug traffick- factors that contributed to the situation of Abaetetuba being ing and is confident he has enlightened the population on the currently a location that relies mainly on informal and illegal ac- risks of such activities. But, on 7 December the traditional Noite tivities. dos Marítimos (seamen’s night) takes place. Historically, it is the night when the important families of Abaetetuba define their social ranking by competetive raising of charity donations for the Historical and Geographical Factors Catholic Church.In front of the church a tent is erected where all sorts of donations are sold by auction.The names of the donors Abaetetuba was founded in 1881 as an independent county; as well as the auction participants appear in the official holy week since 1895 it has enjoyed the status of a city but its official history (76) (74) Most of them are under observation by the PF church programme . It is a classical redistribution ritual which reaches back to the early eighteenth century when the and there are abundant files on them at Belém in former times was activated once a year in most Amazonian Portuguese citizen,Francisco Monteiro reached the banks of the headquarters. communities during the feast of their patron saint.Nowadays,the river Jarumã to take possession of the sesmaria he had received (75) Visiting Abaté in September and October,they seaman’s night is being dominated by the families involved in from the King of Portugal. Already in the seventeenth century, were all back in town, on habeas corpus grounds. cigarette smuggling and drug trafficking; an assessment that is Jesuits had settled down to found missions among the indige- (76) Dom Flávio said in 1999 that he would not allow that to happen;when I asked again in April 2000, shared by the bishop. The fact that the ritual survived in nous population.Today, the county of Abaetetuba covers 1,090 I heard that nothing had changed. Abaetetuba and was practised even after a major disturbance of km and by 1996 had 106,738 inhabitants:59.7 per cent urban and (77) Breaking. public life indicate the importance of traditional forms of social 40.3 per cent rural(81), about double the figure for 1960. Taken (78) Almost all important families own petrol sta- reproduction and inclusion up to the present day. from a county inquiry (1990), the registred employment repre- tions — a fact Roberto Araújo details in his report. sents the following structure: (79) An observation which confirms this tendency is, that all interview-partners precise their state- In May 1999, six months after the incident — life in Sectors Number employed % ments by the identification of their degree of rela- Abaetetuba was divided into the time before and after the que- Cattle-Breeding, Collecting, Fishing 8,893 35.5 (77) tionship to other protagonists of the story. bra-quebra .Cigarette smuggling the major economic activity of Trade 2,785 11.2 (80) Interview partners:federal police in Belém,pros- town is still "weak" — local society attributed this situation to the Industry 6,757 27.1 ecuters of the Ministério Público,Dom Flávio,Bishop, continuing absence of the responsible actors who were still on Transport and communications 2,012 8.1 Padre Adolfo,responsible for the islands,Dona Eliete Service 2,177 8.7 (Juridical Department of the mayor), Aladym — the loose.The absence of Guedes, the manager of a cigarette — MONAPE (National Fishery Movement),FASE — NGO, and drug-smuggling operation with an extensive file at PF head- Social work 1,349 5.4 Zé Nery — city deputy, Elton — city deputy, Elena quaters in Belém, son of a former sugar-cane-manufacturer, and Public service 552 2.2 Maués – a very old woman, Seu Hamilton — an old owner of a petrol station(78),was apparently regarded as extremely Other activities 440 1.8 man — boat-trader in the 1950s and 1960s, Nina damaging to local economic life: "a friend" started to circulate a TOTAL 24,911 100 Abreu — artist of the traditional folkloric arts, Miricinho Batista — ex-state deputy (PT) of Abaeté, letter of sympathy to promote the habeas corpus and return of To enable a better understanding, this data has to be com- members of interactive security council — CISJU,Dr Guedes to Abaetetuba.The letter was signed by almost 300 well- plemented by the actual composition of a family income: Orlando de Paula Arrifano, State Judge, members of known personalities,among them ten of the fifteen city deputies . In the city, a typical composition would be: one salary the Z14 fishery colony,Chico Narinha,ex-mayor and and the Working Party (PT) candidate in the next municipal elec- from public service, one formal or informal commercial activity, candidate for the 2000 elections, superintendent of tions.Two months later Guedes was back in town after a judge in one pension, some fishing, one illegal source. the civil police,director of SEBRAE,Jurandír — owner of the last sugar-cane distillery,owners and workers Belém issued a habeas corpus.These precedents show the degree of six brick-works on the islands. of solidarity in the local society and at the same time illustrate the . On the islands:one income (not necessarily monetary) (81) IBGE, 1998. social desire to always re-integrate its margins by public rituals(79). working in the brick-works, fishing, production of shrimp-traps

FORMER NEXT 141 Chapter 6 (matapís),extraction of açaí,subsistence-farming,one pension;in day-labourers. Its decline is closely connected to a set of exter- the so-called centre which is the major provenance of rural-ur- nal factors which inhibited rather than promoted the modern- ban migrants in the county of Abaetetuba: maniok-flour, pen- ization of the sector(83). sions, money from relatives from the city. The county of A is situated in the the Amazon estuary, on According to corresponding estimates of various interview- the trading-route of the Tocantíns river and to Marajó, 60 km partners,about 15,000 direct and indirect jobs depend currently from Belém, in calm waters and sourounded by about 400 is- on illegal activities like cigarette smuggling and drug trafficking. lands; historically it functioned as a distribution post for goods A number which corresponds to the estimated job-losses due to to and from Marajó, Amapá, the Lower Amazon/Tocantíns and the decline of the cachaça industry — a topic that will be dealt Belém.The extraction of forest products, planting and manu- with in detail below. facturing of sugar-cane, fishing and trading by boat were further traditional economic activities, and, in the memory of old Political, social and economic life is easy to survey since it is people,smuggling has always been a common complementary firmly rooted in the hands of the traditional elites or, in the few undertaking. cases of social ascendency, of well-known traditional families.

For about 200 years until the mid 1980s,and with a short in- Factors that can be atributed terruption during the rubber-boom (1880-1915), Abaeté pre- to Traditional Forms of Social dominantly produced cachaça; it was known as the land of Reproduction "sugar-cane spirit".Between 1975 and 1999,the number of factories, called engenhos, declined from about sixty (1975) pro- The whole economy has traditionally relied,and generally still viding about 15,000(82) direct and indirect jobs to one (1999) does, on informal credits (aviamento/barracão), embedded in a with six employees.The cachaça industry was founded mainly complicated system of patronage and exchange of favours.This on non-monetary, obliging and interdependent exchange-re- kind of traditional reproduction of socio-economic life is self-ref- lations between factory owners (engenheiros), the sugar-cane erential and as such hostile to innovation and investment. Its planters (canavialistas), land-owners, traders (mareteiros) and characteristics can be held partly responsible for the decline of the sugar-cane industry: there was no investment in new machinery; until they closed down, the factories worked with nineteenth-century machines from France.The fishing sector,too,was hardly ever modernized and continues at present with archaic technologies.At the same time aviamento creates dependences of debts and obliging loyalities,which facilitate the infiltration of criminal activities (see the example of João de Deus above).

Effects of Inflation River-trading and fishing expeditions can take months of (82) Chico Narinha, ex-mayor of Abaeté estimated, travelling, and since the whole industry is based on informal fi- not knowing the above cited number (Anderson, nancing by patrons, the system was seriously affected during 1994),that currently about 15,000 people live off illicit activities. times of high inflation (from the 1980s to 1994).Therefore,access (83) See the excellent study by Anderson, 1994, MAP F to foreign currency became vital to economic survival and of pp. 101-21. course favoured organised crime.

FORMER NEXT 142 Chapter 6 Secondary Effects of Modern Abaetetuba.This was the case for many sugar-cane industrialists Technologies and the National who, instead of modernizing their factories, started to invest in Integration Policy shops, supermarkets and petrol stations in Abaeté.The fortunes of the ones who stayed behind, gradually declined(84). In 1999 The introduction of the diesel engine in the 1950s vitalised Senhor Jurandir possesses the last engenho called Caprícho with local economic life,since regional transport became cheaper and a monthly production of 6,400 litres.He still works on an entirely quicker. Also telephone-lines, antibiotics and certain machines informal basis since he is not able to fullfil the complex injunc- could be integrated into the local and regional social and eco- tions for registration. nomic life without major ruptures,though they had already triggered rural-urban migration and accounted for the growing lack Over the past thirty years,the fishery sector has been affected of interest in hinterland businesses.The national integration pol- by almost all the possible consequences of social transformation, icy,however,which officially started with Operation Amazonia in as it is a classic example of a backsliding position. Fishing had 1966, foresaw not only certain infrastructural measures but a never constituted an exclusive economic activity in the Amazon whole development concept which neglected and still neglects but was part of a whole set of extractive activities,mainly for sub- the existence of a traditional sector in the Amazon:applying con- sistence purposes.Hence,in becoming a professional industry,it trol without mediation or support, the plain modernising ideol- reveals the economic calamity in other economic fields. ogy provoked the structural marginalisation of traditional Amazonia. In this sense, the following examples from Abaeté By the time,these interviews took place (in September 1999), should be seen in a broarder context of nationally induced trans- the representatives of the fishers association counted 874 mem- formation processes. bers and estimated between 2,500 - 3,000 professional fishers in Abaeté of which approximately 50 per cent carry out this activ- The construction of the national highways from the south ity exclusively and 50 per cent mix it with other activities. In ad- and north-east to the Amazon region brought dramatic changes dition to the problems of official state bureaucracy,dependence to local life. Innumerable migrants and rival businesses, mainly on informal credits within patronage systems and the impacts of from the south of the country, gained access to the Amazon. resource depletion,two other factors further weakened the sector and made individual criminal choices more likely. In the case of Abaetetuba, the "51" industrial cachaça from southern Brazil began to be distributed within modern business The construction of the hydroelectric plant at Tucuruí which structures by the mid-1970s. On the basis of more concentrated was flooded in 1986 interrupted the routes of migrating fish sugar-cane and an increase in efficient technology, this produce (Tocantíns River), altered the reproductive cycles in the estuary entered the region at a much lower price than local produce and and the respective fishing-grounds — fishermen attribute 30 per virtually wiped out the precarious production structures on the is- cent decline to these impacts. The Federal Environmental lands of Abaetetuba.The introduction of labour and sanitary laws Agency, IBAMA, responsible for the area undertook no research in 1974 was an additional blow to the industry. Due to the ex- on such local changes but insists on the application of inappro- tremely low management capacities of the island enterprises, priate environmental protection laws.This has resulted in the re- adaptation to these modern legal obligations led to bankruptcy. striction of fishery activities at the wrong time and in the wrong Currently,the same problems have contributed to the ongoing de- places. Moreover, IBAMA only manages to transfer the unem- cline of the brick works on the islands which since the 1970s has ployment benefit payments for the defence period (December responded to growing demands for bricks and pantiles in the city. to February) to the fishers in September.This has led to the criminalisation of the whole sector (because they have to live off During this same period,city life became more attractive:ed- something), exposing it to extortion by state officials and mak- (84) 1975 — 60, 1987 — 16, 1999 — 1 (Anderson, ucation,health care,electricity and television were only available ing it increasingly vulnerable to criminal activities such as smug- 1991,p.105). in an urban context and drew well-off families to the city of gling and piracy. Economic alternatives and the modernisation

FORMER NEXT 143 Chapter 6 of the sector have been blocked by inadequate credit lines,again disappeared.The growing professionalism of drug trafficking is exposing fisheries to informal credits and criminal pressures. the most far-reaching and least-desired result of such policies: Instead of infiltrating the cocaine on its way to Suriname to fishing-boats and bringing back cigarettes in exchange, lately there Secondary Effects of Major Projects are using so-called cuteiros — large boats which are well equipped like commercial fishing-boats and appear to be fish- In addition to the above mentioned impacts,the construction ing-boats but are exclusively transporting drugs. Since 1997 of the hydroelectric plant at Tucuruí interrupted the traditional when Abaeté appeared as the "Amazonian Medellin" in the na- trading routes of regional salesmen working on the river.Trade tional media, the bishop, the judge, some local deputies and was driven to the new roads and cities leading to the further members of the federal police (PF) in Belém demand the instal- marginalisation of traditionally inhabited areas. lation of a permanent PF-post in Abaetetuba, a demand which The construction of an aluminium factory at Bacarena re- has not yet been accomplished. sulted in massive rural-urban migration to and within the county of Abaetetuba.This introduced modernizing elements such as new consumption patterns, which could not be sus- Effects of the Colombian crises tained once the construction work was over.The laid-off construction workers from rural areas refused to return home and Owing to the growing demand for military goods for the the first slums developed on the outskirts of the city.In the mid- forces controlling the Colombian "liberated zones" (FARC and 1980s cigarette smuggling began to boom and many of the laid- AUC/para-military) and as reaction to repression policies, police off construction workers began to enter this business. informants and local fishers reported an increase in non-mone- Additionally, several interview partners blamed the loss of tra- tary cocaine towards weapons/ammunition deals in Abaetetuba. ditional knowledge on diversified utilisation of local natural resources and of its esteem of the "missing generation" between 1975 and 1990. Conclusion The promised positive effects of modernisation for the The combination of historical and geographical factors with county, like economic growth and new jobs failed to materialise a whole set of externally induced transformation processes,with- as there was never any mediation between developmentalist out adding legal economic opportunities explains the current strategies, instruments and ideologies and the traditional logic conditions in Abaetetuba.The interdependent impacts of related of Abaetetuba. Consequently, the qualified workforce of factors and processes have led to the high receptivity of illegal Bacarena came from other parts of Brazil, and now live and con- activities.The rather closed traditional social structures still at- sume in Belém. tempt to absorb and integrate the legal and illegal effects of social transformation;the subsequently established "law of secrecy" has reinforced inertia and hostility to any innovations, by this Effects of an Inconsistent Policy of closing circle. Repression To understand the causes and consequences of local and re- The inconsistent and sporadic repression policy of the PF, gional inclusion of drug trafficking activities, it is essential to which hit superficially visible targets, led to the decline in study the history of social organisation in the "hot spots" con- cigarette smuggling and a the rise in criminality, mainly involv- cerned.The precise knowledge of current and traditional forms ing adolescent addicts who had lost their sources of income. In of representation, underlying norms and values and their re- addition, there was a rise in piracy, attributed partly to the civil spective institutionalization, as well as the existence and nature and military police,whose most obvious sources of extortion had of horizontal and vertical system-links (O’Donnell, 1999) are pre-

FORMER NEXT 144 Chapter 6 requisites for assessing the regional and local impact of trans- In Abaetetuba transformation has led to the total decay of le- forming forces.The results of this analysis enable the identifica- gal economic activities. The traditional elite shrank and tradition of receptivity to criminal activities in a given society. tional forms of economic redistribution vanished together with the respective activities. To survive socially and economically Referring to the introductory theses, the exposed cases sub- from drug trafficking,patrons need fewer and different "clients". stantiate that globalisation and its manifestations in national,po- Consequently,the capacity for social integration has diminished litical and economic life have contributed significantly to ongo- and a growing number of those excluded are becoming involved ing transformation processes in the Amazon.Large development in new criminal activities such as piracy and extortion. projects, new infrastructure and communication technologies, institutions and laws have far exceeded the already precarious In southern Pará, continuous migratory flows undermined steering capacity of the state,as well as traditional forms of social any social obligations long ago.Violence, impunity and corrup- integration. In accordance with the respective local law culture tion have become so generalised and embedded in private and and power relations, incompatibilities between new rules and public life,that the aggregation of new criminal activities appears protagonists and traditional proceedings are being mediated in almost natural and determines social inclusion or exclusion. ever-growing informal spaces.In Abaetetuba,the attempts of the lasting traditional elites to centralise control and obstruct struc- Combat strategies tural changes of life can be verified.In southern Pará,any modifi- Institutional and political limitations of combat strategies are cation is perceived as an additional option to expand economic manifold. Nationally, there are three police forces involved, the activities, whether they are legal, illegal or criminal is of no con- federal police,the civil police and the military police.There is min- sequence. imal co-operation between them.They compete with each other regarding competences and access to resources.The PF,the in- The form that criminal activities take corresponds largely with stitution responsible for combating international drug traffick- formal and informal business habits in the immediate surrounding, is relatively independent and relatively uncorrupt, albeit ings.Whilst in Abaetetuba the local elites try to maintain the ap- quite fragmented as an organisation with few regular opportu- pearance of legality by closing off of what they regard as their ter- nities to obtain adequate funds to fulfil its mission.Within the PF ritory from external interference and internal modifications, the there do exist networks with far-reaching national and interna- protagonists in southern Pará generally operate more openly. tional contacts who achieve quite good results; they are never- Over the past thirty years,impunity has become institutionalized. theless beyond any democratic control or accountability. The initial pioneer-inspired constitution of local society has been consolidated on the short-term extractive logic of a few powerful The civil police respond to the state governments and are elites,both traditional and new,who occupy municipal or federal for the most part corrupt(85). Salaries are extremely low (about public institutions alternately.Therefore, it is not surprising that U$200 for an investigator, about U$1,000 for a commissioner). the same names always reappear independently,wherever illegal Qualification as an investigator requires twenty days at a police gold,timber,subsidy fraud or cocaine are concerned. academy, the monthly budget of a police station is so low(86), that regular and legal work is impossible.In Pará,the civil police (85)The security secretary of Pará estimated during Owing to the continuous under-representation of modern is involved in all sorts of criminal activities, particularly theft of an interview in 1997 that about 80 per cent of his state institutions,social contracts are negotiated locally.There are seised property, selling of stolen goods, blackmailing and men are involved in active or passive corruption. two preconditions for the functioning of informal redistribution piracy. Although the Security Secretary of Pará is well aware of (86) For example, U$150 for petrol in Abaetetuba,a networks:the existence of sufficient economic assets for distribu- the situation and is trying to promote innovative solutions such major cocaine-route to Suriname and one car, no tion and some kind of incentives and sanctions to stimulate reas interactive security councils(87), the installation of an om- boat, though trafficking is happening on water. (87) CISJU’s new model of security partnership be- distribution: budsman and supports all sorts of progressive elements within tween police-officers, firemen, community centres, his corporation, there are no realistic options for improvement NGOs, municipal deputies and the media. in view.

FORMER NEXT 145 Chapter 6 The military police are accountable to the state governments The identification of modernising factors within processes of and the counties, their staff receive even lower salaries (U$150), social transformation offer starting points for new strategies of so- are less qualified and dispose of a smaller budget than the civil cial regulation.In the presented context the following tendences police.Normally, the military police are completely inserted into are worthwhile mentioning: modern communication technolo- local clientelistic networks. However, their institution is hetero- gies make it possible to obtain and exchange information as well geneous, too; there are a few positive experiences with human as to maintain regional,national and international contacts even rights courses, environmental units and contributions to the within a remote and extense environment like the Amazon re- work of the cited interactive community councils (CISJU’s). gion; those new possibilities result in a qualitative change of the significance of time and space,may support democratisation but Generally speaking, consistent support (staff, qualification, at the same time they are equally useful to the enterprises of or- funds, technical assistance to elaborate necessary law improve- ganised crime.The existence of international law, international ments etc.) to the democratic and professional elements within conventions and institutions are supportive to anybody who the different police forces as well as a better interinstitutional needs reference points to legitimise legal proceedings within communication and accountability system are necessary pre- his/her institution or pressing for state action from outside. requisites for combating drug trafficking in the Amazon. Unfortunately, the information level on such possibilities is still quite low;for example,UNDCP-Brasília is completely unknown to Externally induced combat and repression strategies can also the relevant institutions in the Brazilian Amazon. turn out to be quite problematic.Tending to operate on a basis of precarious knowledge of local structures like, for example, At the national and regional level the Ministério Público (fed- power relations and distributive mechanisms,their effects might eral or regional),a kind of public attorneyship,is fulfilling the role contradict their intentions.To cite just two examples: of a mediator between society,state institutions and the judiciary in respect of the application of the law, quite often referring to 1.Federal Police repression in Abaetetuba was intended international law such as conventions. to crack down on cocaine trafficking to Suriname;but since there were insufficient funds and knowledge of the characteristcs of On a regional level, it is worth mentioning positive experi- the place,activities were sporadic,inconsistent and hit mainly the ences as the constitution of new security-partnerships cigarette-smuggling activities with the following results:shifting (Interactive Security Councils) and the initiative of the Human the cigarette businesses to nearby fishery towns, rising crime Rights Organisation, SPDDH to install a programme of witness rates in Abaetetuba — especially between addicted teenagers protection. who lost their income;professionalisation of drug trafficking and increasing piracy activities mainly by now marginalised small- Combating state-embedded corruption or,to be more realis- scale smugglers and policemen. tic, the promotion of transparency and accountability in public institutions are long-term goals and prerequisites to combat the 2. PF repression in the Vale do Javarí indigenous reser- further extension of organised crime.The world of nation-states vation on the Peruvian border was intended to combat drug traf- is in transition from interdependence to new global structures of ficking by destroying clandestine airstrips,but resulted in a broad social action,currently leaving a considerable vacuum.The grow- electoral alliance of various economic interest groups financed ing internationalisation of crime as well as new forms of warfare by drug-traffickers against the demarcation of indigenous lands. represent the dark side of this transitory "state of the arts". Traditional forms of mainly nation-based strategies cannot con- 3.The outcome of Operation Cobra(88) against the infiltration tain those developments.On the other hand,the unreflected im- of foreign drug traffickers and the military on the Brazilian- port of inadequate development strategies do produce unin- Colombian border is yet to come.The investigation of the unintended side-effects as has been exposed above. A tendency (88) Under way since September 2000. tended local side-effects will certainly be interesting. which might be aggravated by the application of again badly in-

FORMER NEXT 146 Chapter 6 formed, uniform combat strategies against their manifestations as rising criminality and drug trafficking. New alliances, innovative co-operation, strategies and instruments will have to transcend national, institutional and ideological barriers. One major challenge on the way to opposing further social desintegration resides in the speeding up of institutional learning processes, which is needed to guarantee the absorption of differentiated knowledge as a resource for political decision-making.

The fact that international cocaine trafficking found its way to areas where sound social organisation was already at stake, might detract from the option to rebalance social relations throughout transformation processes. Connections with international criminal networks and the massive influx of drug money combined with money-laundering activities and local drug consumption,have encouraged criminality and contributed to transforming informal social areas into criminal domains.The historian, Alfred McCoy (2000, p. 213) goes straight to the point: "Through the alchemy of capitalism, wherever this commodity (drugs) comes to rest, mafias form, ethnic separatists arm, and a culture of criminality crystallizes."

FORMER NEXT 147 Chapter 6 CARVALHO,V.N.C.de.1995.Soberania e confronto na fronteira Bibliography Amazonica, 1850-1910.In: Anuário de Estudios Americanos,Sevilla, Vol.52 N° 2,pp.121-50. ANDERSON,S.D.1991.Engenhos na várzea:uma análise do declínio de um sistema de produção traditional na Amazônia.In: Phillippe COLAZINGARI, S., ROSE ACKERMAN, S.1998.Corruption Léna and Adélia Engrácia de Oliveira, Amazônia — A fronteira agrí- in a Paternalistic Democracy: Lessons from Italy for Latin America. cola 20 anos depois.Belém-Pará Political Science Quarterly Vol.113, pp.447-470

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BLUMENTHAL, H.R.2000.Kolumbien:Träume des Friedens, GEFFRAY,C.,1995.Chronique de la servitude en Amazonie brésilienne. Realitäten des Krieges.In: Politik und Gesellschaft Online, N° 2. Paris, Karthala. Internetdocument, www.fes.de/ipg/ ______, 1996.Efeitos Sociais, Econômicos e Políticos da Penetração do Narcotráfico na Amazônia Brasileira (Enquête Mato BREUER, S.1991.Max Webers Herrschaftssoziologie.In: Honneth, Grosso).77 pp.Brasília.(Unpublished MS.). Joas, Offe, Theorie und Gesellschaft,Vol.18.New York,FFM. ______, 1997.Efeitos Sociais, Econômicos e Políticos da Penetração do Narcotráfico na Amazônia Brasileira, (Enquête BROCK,L.,SCHÖNENBERG R.2000.Zwischen Privatisierung und Rondonia.Costa Marques — Guajará-Mirim, 1980-1991).72 pp. Internationalisierung — Die Zukunft des staatlichen Brasília.(Unpublished MS.). Gewaltmonopols.In: Schönenberg, Regine ( ed.), Internationaler ______, 1998.Efeitos Sociais, Econômicos e Políticos da Drogenhandel und gesellschaftliche Transformation.Wiesbaden. Penetração do Narcotráfico na Amazônia Brasileira, Enquête Rondonia.Tráfico Internacional, Lavagem Local e Política.).128 pp. CARTIER-BRESSON, J.1997.Corruption Networks,Transaction Brasília.(Unpublished MS.). Security and Illegal Social Exchange.In: Paul Heywood, (ed.), Political Corruption,Oxford.

FORMER NEXT 148 Chapter 6 - Bibliography Governo do Pará /SEJU/SUSIPE, 1997.Cartilha do Agente Prisional. MEZA, R.V.1999.The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Belém. and the Illicit Drug Trade.Internet document at: ______,1997.Técnicas de Aperfeiçoamento para pessoal www.tni.org/drugs/index.htm/ da área penitenciária, Belém. Ministério da Justiça 1996.PANAD — Programa de Ação Nacional Governo do Pará/SEGUP, 1997.Sistema de Segurança Pública. Antidrogas, Brasília, Ministério da Justiça. Secretaria de Segurança Pública, Belém. MORA, F.O.1996.Victims of the Balloon Effect: Drug Trafficking and GOUDIE,A.W.;STASAVAGE, D.1998.A Framework for the Analysis the US Policy in Brazil and the Southern Cone of Latin America. of Corruption.Crime,Law and Social Change, Journal of Social,Political and Economic Studies,Vol.21, N° 2, p.11. Vol.29, N° 2/3, pp.113-59. O’DONNELL, G.1999.Horizontal Accountability in New Jornal do Brasil.1998.FH vai criar secretaria antidrogas/ Democracies.In: Andreas Schedler, Larry Diamond and Marc F. Entre ciúmes e divergências, Jornal do Brasil,8 June,p.4. Plattner (eds.).The Self-Restraining State — Power and Accountability in New Democracies, London. KITCHENER,R.I.1992.The Brazilian Military:Its Role in Counter-Drug Activities, Monterey, CA.(Unpublished, thesis, Naval Postgraduate OGD (Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues ).1993.Der Wlt- School). Drogenbericht.Munich/Paris, OGD.

LARR (Latin American Regional Report).1992.Paradise for Drug O Liberal.1998.Guerra aos Contrabandistas (24 June, p.4); Traffickers: Brazil Now a Major Staging Post for Europe Bound Apreendido contrabando de cigarro (26 June, p.6).O Liberal. Cocaine.Latin American Regional Report,Southern Cone.9 January. Parliamentary Investigating Commission on Narcotic and LIMA,M.R.SOARES de.1995.Democracia e reforma economica: Impunity of Drug Traffickers in Brazil, 1992.Final Report and a visão das elites brasileiras.Dados,Vol.38, No.1, pp.7-30 Conclusions of the Parliamentary Investigating Commission on Narcortics.Brasília. MACHADO, L.O.1997: Les mouvements d’argent et le trafic de drogue — une approche régionale.Rio de Janeiro. PINHEIRO,Á.deSOUZA 1996.Guerillas in the Brazilian Amazon. (Unpublished MS.). Military Review,Vol.76, N° 2, pp.38-55.

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McCoy, A.W.2000.Coercion and its Unintended Consequences: ROSE-ACKERMANN,S.1999.Corruption and Government — Causes, A Study of Heroin Trafficking in South-east and South-west Asia. Consequences,and Reform.New York/Cambridge. Crime,Law and Social Change,Vol.33, pp.191-224 SANTOS, R.1980.História Econômica da Amazônia (1800-1920), McILLWAIN, J.S.1999.A Social Network Approach.Crime,Law and São Paulo. Social Change,Vol.32, N° 4, pp.301-21 SCHMIED-KOWARZIK,W.; Stagl, Justin (eds.).1993.Grundfragen der MEDEIROS, A.1998.Sob os olhos do SIVAM.Época, 1 June, pp.40-6 Ethnologie, Berlin.

FORMER NEXT 149 Chapter 6 - Bibliography SCHONENBERG, R.1993.Konflikte und Konfliktregulation in Amazonien, Bonn. ______, 2000.Internationaler Drogenhandel und gesellschaftliche Transformation.Wiesbaden.

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WILLIAMS, S.; MILANI, C.1999.The Globalisation of the Drug Trade, in: Social Science, N° 111.Internet document, at www.unesco.org/most/drugs.htm/

FORMER

150 Chapter 6 - Bibliography Chapter 7 they also function as channels of interaction between levels of or- DRUG TRAFFICKING ganisation.The nature of these interactions is neither mechani- AND MONEY cal nor linear as individuals and groups acting at each level are LAUNDERING continuously seeking to adapt themselves to sudden changes in IN THE AMAZON the immediate and mediate environment, usually in an oppor- REGION: tunistic behaviour. GEOECONOMIC AND In the first section of the chapter a brief survey of the symbi- GEOPOLITICAL otic relationship between the organisations running the illicit EFFECTS drug trade and the banking and financial system in the global Lia Osorio Machado scale and in the Brazilian national scale is followed by an overview of drug trafficking networks and financial flows in the Brazilian section of the Amazon River Basin.The second section attempts to draw a parallel between the Brazilian section and the western section of the Amazon Basin in South America in terms Conceptual framework of the relationship of organisational modes of international drug trafficking networks with particular traits of territorial settlement. The drug problem and the recycling of profits derived from Finally, the third section discusses drug trafficking control mea- the drug trade and correlated activities is a truly complex prob- sures in Brazil and their geopolitical implications in the Amazon lem, involving a complex set of interactions played out in differ- region. ent albeit connected scales of organisation.Thus, the study of a particular country or region cannot be isolated from other levels of analysis. Financial Flows and Drug Trafficking Our purpose is to introduce a geographical perspective of the drug problem, that is, to insist on the relevance of spatial distri- The Symbiosis between the Illicit Drug Trade bution of data concerning international drug trafficking net- and the International Financial System works and their linkages to money laundering operations. A symbiotic relationship between the illicit drug trade and Spatiality of social constructs increases our awareness of the dif- the world banking and financial system has evolved in the last ference that place makes in the dynamics of social,economic and decades and may be considered as the crucial question for pub- political processes.Distance,relative position and accessibility of lic policies at the domestic and international level. places are spontaneously evaluated by agents involved in drug trafficking and money laundering operations;equally important Four aspects of the banking and financial globalisation pro- to these operations is the evaluation of territorial differentiation. cess should be highlighted since they have a direct bearing in the Conversely, the form and extent of participation in these opera- increase of scale and diffusion of money laundering arrange- tions by inhabitants in each place owes much to the characteris- ments, namely: tics of lived-in territory and to expectations, real or imagined, of . The deregulation of the system of buying and selling individuals and communities towards other places. currency, credit, or commercial paper. . The apparently contradictory duplication of such Because networks are the preferred mode of operation for deregulation, which prompts some government to manipulate drug traffic and money laundering agents both, our methodol- the territorial boundaries of banks under their jurisdiction (for ex- ogy leans heavily on the concept.Networks are a response to the ample, by establishing territorial zones such as tax havens) and heterogeneity and non-contiguous nature of spatial interactions; to support banks,stock exchanges,and agencies that carry some

NEXT 151 Chapter 7 weight in international investment markets to ensure their ac- thorities in 33 world financial centres and concluded that non- cess to credit on the international market. residents of Brazilian origin, banks not included, held approxi- . The tremendous increase in the volume,flow,and vari- mately US$ 17,4 billion in deposits abroad at the end of 1999 ety of short-term capital circulating on the international financial (against US$ 9,7 billion in 1985). markets,which ranges form "hot money" to government bonds, bank deposits, short-term deposits, and so on.This has a poten- Capital flight due to institutional instability and currency de- tially destabilising effect on the economies of individual coun- valuation was one of the primary reasons for the "real" (new cur- tries, especially those more dependent on international credit. rency) plan,established in 1994.The associated reforms covered . The online operation of the banking and financial sys- the transactions of exchange offices and dollar sellers,the under- tem permits ever swifter and cheaper financial transfers along pricing of imports and overpricing of exports, the diversion of with easier access to geographically scattered markets. subsidized credits for the financial market, the bogus bank accounts linked to corruption, and the transactions that relied on Despite the benefits of the globalisation of banking and fi- secret funds. nancial systems,their global character also aids the money laundering process through the removal of national regulatory struc- The damping of inflation and the buttressing of national cur- tures. rency won majority public approval as evidenced in presidential elections and by the backing of financial agencies and interna- The Situation in Brazil tional creditor banks.Nevertheless,the underlying economic pol- The incorporation of Brazil into international money launder- icy is geared toward an expanded market culture,which encour- ing schemes is neither recent,nor is it solely attributable to the ex- aged measures to change prevailing economic and cultural pansion of drug trafficking in the country.Responsible factors in- norms. These measures ultimately make the country more ac- clude the inflation of the 1980s through 1994;the fiscal and insti- cessible to the international market and are seen as necessary to tutional crisis,which accentuated the instability of the credit sys- make Brazil more competitive, both in the international com- tem and of the economic ground rules; and the longtime domi- modities market and in the money market.This links two objec- nance of informal labor markets and of small "informal" enter- tives: ensuring the availability of money and the confidence of prises subsisting on contraband and tax evasion. potential investors.

Brazil has developed a modern and interconnected domestic New tensions are emerging alongside the new culture,for in- banking system whose branches are connected by means of a stance, those caused by the gradual adjustment in investment highly developed telecommunication infrastructure used mainly policies. In addition, increased exchange reserves act both as an by the banks themselves. By the 1980s, banks and companies economic and as a political variable, because both the market were already linked to the intercompany global communication and the public at large view them as a kind of guarantee of ex- system by means of leased networks. These networks provide change rate stability, and hence of government stability. The higher quality connections than were available in the past and gradual devaluation of the "real" since the beginning of 1999 al- are less liable to disruption because they offer several alternative though not sufficient to destabilize the government has clearly routes. undermined governance.

The expansion of the dollar black market, the development The growth of foreign currency investments has also proof transactions for the illegal transfer of currency abroad, slush duced tensions because of their volatility and because of the re- funds ("caixa dois"; "caisse noire"),and the depreciation of the av- sulting increase in internal indebtedness.Legal domestic and in- erage Brazilian’s salary and savings all foster a climate conducive ternational incentives for the financial and credit market can and to the growth of money laundering devices.A 1991 International are used to launder money and introduce it into the lawful econ- Monetary Fund study compared official data provided by the au- omy.National investors and enterprises can use legitimate meth-

FORMER NEXT 152 Chapter 7 ods to transfer capital abroad and bring it back,the idea being to ship between the two activities calls for setting up some kind launder the funds into foreign currency to invest in stock ex- of organisation. However, when one considers the spatiality of changes or to invest in Brazil. Similarly, foreign investors and en- both activities,drug trafficking and money laundering is loosely terprises occasionally or permanently involved in laundering linked.Given the high risks of transporting drugs,drug traffick- schemes can buy securities issued by Brazilian enterprises ing networks are inevitably flexible, meaning that they con- abroad or national treasury bonds. stantly change their routes, move their processing plants, and so on.On the other hand,flexibility is finite,given territorial con- We can thus describe both the national and the international straints and infrastructural conditions.This was forcibly evident banking and financial systems as open systems that are affected by the mapping of places where seisures of coca and cocaine by international flows of money.Interaction between these flows occurred, which indicated the close dependence of drug traf- will determine the system’s overall stability or lack of it. Money ficker to main land pathways linking, for example, the Amazon laundering, which a number of governments see as a dysfunc- towns to the Southeastern seaboard,despite the apparent ran- tional aspect of the banking and financial systems, is an integral domness of alternative routes.Because of this,our study distin- part of these flows. guishes between routes and corridors: the main corridors are the least cost pathways for moving goods and may harbor an Links between Money Laundering assortment of alternative routes alongside it. It is precisely the and Drug Trafficking choice of routes the main indicator of the sensitivity and strat- We now turn to a theoretical (as opposed to factual) analy- egy of drug traffickers networks to territorial heterogeneity and sis of how the banking and financial system may be interacting the main indicator of where are placed their local partners and with drug trafficking in South America, especially, in Brazilian accomplices.The distinction between corridor and route may Amazonia.In any case, data about money laundering and drug be useful for the design of territorial control strategies by gov- trafficking are hard to obtain and are often unreliable. Our ernmental agencies. study made a number of assumptions as follows: . Those involved in drug trafficking and money launder- By contrast, money laundering operations depend much ing prefer to operate through networks, and the extent and/or more on existing, legitimate networks because of their reliance diversity of available networks guides the choice of geographic on specific services that are only available in particular places, location or territory in which they operate.We can classify net- usually in urban areas (such as banks,foreign exchange bureaus, works into (a) natural networks such as streams and trials; (b) in- financial services, and electronic money transfer). A number of frastructural or technical networks such as transportation and techniques for money laundering are available (de Maillard, communication systems;(c) transactional networks,(1) which take 1998), most of which involve the banking system at some stage. political and economic power networks into account; and (d) in- Thanks to the current openness of the international financial and formational networks. banking system, the risks incurred in laundering operations are . Drug traffickers also choose their territory based on the concentrated mainly at the first stage,that is,the disposal of bulk environment, for example, they prefer locations where local in- cash in banks. Once funds are deposited, currency can then be stitutions may be weak and where connections between differ- exchanged for other monetary instruments such as cashier’s ent groups in local society are tenuous. checks, bank drafts, and travelers checks.The risk decreases sig- . Just like legitimate multinational corporations, crimi- nificantly in subsequent stages of money laundering, that is the nal networks also develop complex strategies to handle their in- layering stage, which involves disguising the origin of initial de- (1) A transactional network, as proposed by ternational transactions.This too will affect their choice of loca- posits through money transfers, and the integration stage, that G.Dupuy (1991) following C.Raffestin’s suggestion tion. is, using layered funds to buy clean, legitimate assets. On the that place is where individuals or organisations reason their action towards other places,is the ultimate other hand, the layering and integration stage entails higher source of networks, a way of incorporating other The same people will not necessarily be responsible for costs given the high fees charged by banks for their services. places into one’s territory. both drug trafficking and money laundering, but the relation-

FORMER NEXT 153 Chapter 7 The Drug Trafficking Network in a particular financial institution and requests the placement of and the Amazon River Basin into a temporary account. Some time later on, he instructs the The main coca producing areas are located on the western bank to pay out the money in a bank check and eventually trans- side of the Amazon River Basin in the upper and middle valleys fer the funds to accounts (at the same bank or another) held on of its headwaters and tributaries (Huallaga, Ucayali, and behalf of companies controlled by the launderer or to his own ac- Apurimac in Peru; Beni and San Miguel in Bolivia; Putumayo, count.Conversely,the launderer may collect bank checks sent to Caqueta e Uaupés in Colombia). him by a third party. Within this scenario, the number and net worth of cleared checks in a particular place may be a reasonable From the angle of drug trafficking logistics, the great South indication of money laundering operations. American river basins are a major route for the transit of drugs. Despite the difficulties of river navigation,these basins have pro- Information provided by Central Bank of Brazil for 1995 and vided the main communication route within South America for 1996 on the movement of cleared checks for Amazon towns was centuries. In addition to the river network, a road and transport therefore mapped.The mapping suggests that drug traffickers network permit a reasonably good link between the Pacific and operating in the Brazilian Amazon region,probably since the end Atlantic coasts. Albeit much debate on the part both of national of the 1970s,have used this type of laundering scheme.Data was governments and the World Bank about the advisability of build- broken down by places where branches of public and private ing a transcontinental highway, such a connection is an irre- banks operated, the majority of which are very small towns.The versible fact.The extent to which the drug economy directly or spatial distribution of cleared checks shows many small towns indirectly contributed to its gradual construction is unknown. with a disproportionate amount and net worth of checks if com- Neither the air nor the road transport network is confined to in- pared to population size, local gross internal product and the tercontinental routes or official airports.A very precarious grid of amount of federal income tax paid.In other words,money move- minor roads and farm and village runways scattered around the ment is incompatible with the economy of many places.No ques- interior of the continent makes up an "informal" transportation tion that the method can only be applied in areas with precari- network.Consequently,while we know that drug trafficking takes ous economies, which is the case here. It is to say that Brazilian advantage of both network, we do not know how far the traf- Amazonia is very probably not the prime centre of money laun- ficking organisations are responsible for maintaining and ex- dering operations. In reality, other areas of Brazil are more heav- tending the informal system. ily (and profitably) involved.We have chosen to focus on this area purely for practical reasons related to our research. Note that the main trafficking routes between the Andean countries and Brazil are two way. They also serve to smuggle a) Selected cases gold, electronic goods, commodities (such as coffee, soya), and The town of Eirunepé (1996 total population: 25 000; urban stolen cars,which are exchanged for such items as coca,cocaine, population:15 420) shows check deposits in the order of US$ 1, and arms. Brazil’s involvement in the drug economy also comes 4 million (1995) and US$ 1, 3 million (1996) in its three bank about through the sale of chemicals used to transform the coca branches (corresponding to a monthly average around 100 000 leaf into cocaine.While Brazilian industry is not alone in benefit- dollars).The formal economy depends on the marketing of lo- ing from such sales, the country’s chemicals and fuel industry, cal forest products sold to small traders operating along the confronted with an unstable domestic consumer market, is en- middle valley of the Juruá river (95% of the labor force is infor- couraged to sell what it can to the Andean countries,where most mally employed).In 1996,Eirunepé’s GIP was worth US$ 10 mil- of the processing in cocaine is carried out. lion, most of it derived from the primary sector, and total income tax paid to the IRS amounted to US$ 150 000. Money Movements in Brazilian Amazonia Nevertheless, the town hosts an airport and bank branches Laundering through temporary bank accounts is a well- lease a 24-hour satellite service for data transmission of money known money-laundering scheme.The launderer deposits cash orders.

FORMER NEXT 154 Chapter 7 In other cases,towns have grown and their economic activi- laundering to drug traffic networks in specific, usually strategi- ties have developed, yet clear source of capital cannot be iden- cally located, places.It begs the question of our research project tified. One example is Tefé, one of the oldest and best-known since its beginning in 1995: has the drug trade and money laun- transit points for cocaine in the Brazilian Amazon region.Tefé dering had a hand in the region’s economic development,that is,in typifies those towns where the spin-off from drug trafficking the financing of legal activities? may be stimulating the emergence of legal urban-based activities: local GIP in 1996 was US$68,150,000, 53% of which came The most money associated with cleared checks in the region from the urban service sector. Its rank in the urban hierarchy of came through the cities of Manaus, Belém, and Cuiabá, the the state of Amazonas jumped from fifth in 1980 to third in largest and most important in the Brazilian Amazon region.The 1996, following an urban population increase (from 14,000 to development of international tourism has expanded the air traf- 48,000 for the same period).Cruzeiro do Sul is another old town fic network through Manaus, which is also well situated for river dating back to the rubber period that today still depends on traffic, and a newly surfaced road links Manaus to Venezuela, trade,but nowhere economically significant as the rubber trade. Colombia, and Guyana, one of the alternative ports for shipping Transformed into a free trade zone,it is a "cul-de-sac town",as it cocaine to the United States and Europe. Identifying the contri- lies at the end of the east-west precarious road traversing the bution of national and international drug trafficking to the ex- state of Acre.This and the relative closeness of coca producing pansion of these three cities is difficult;however,all three occupy areas in Peru had probably something to do with its becoming strategic positions in relation to the main regional and interna- part of the network of cocaine trafficking and the trade in coca- tional traffic corridors. based paste.This town of about 32,000 people (1996) had five bank branches that cleared 59,581 checks with a net worth of b) Electronic transfers US$25,867,483 in 1996. Connections to money laundering op- The check clearance data do not give us a full picture of erations must have started early on, if the increase in the num- movements of money in the Amazon region. As in the rest of ber of bank branches from two in 1971 to five in 1981 is some- the world, electronic transfer is the main channel for moving thing to go on.Nevertheless,here again,there is some evidence funds. From an inventory of the points in the Amazon region that the spin-off from drug trafficking may be stimulating the connected by the DATASAT-BI satellite communication network emergence of legal urban-based activities:local GIP in 1996 was service in 1994, we identified the towns directly linked to the US$73,700,000,68% from tertiary activities.Cruzeiro do Sul also rest of the country.This service operates around the clock, so hosts an airport and its bank branches leases a 24-hour satellite leasing this service is only justified when the movements of service for data transmission of money orders.Whereas 78% of funds offsets the price of the service.The banks are DATASAT- urban labor holds informal jobs in Cruzeiro,Tefé’s informal sec- BI’s main clients, and most of the towns in the region are di- tor comprises 90% of total employed labor in urban jobs. Data rectly linked to São Paulo, where the headquarters of most on the functional distribution of formal labor jobs in Cruzeiro do banks are located.An interesting finding is that some places like Sul shows a significant proportion employed in commercial and the small town of Tabatinga, strategically located on the hotel services, which suggests that the town benefits from out- Solimões River between Colombia and Peru, which has only side visitors in a higher level than Tefé.Note that Cruzeiro do Sul two banks, still maintains a direct satellite link with São Paulo. is one of the main nodes of the criminal and political network Tabatinga and neighboring border towns is the subject of a connected to drug trafficking which was discovered some years Masters thesis currently being developed by a member of our ago and will be briefly described in the last section (Section C) of research team. Direct connections of other small towns to the this chapter (the Cameli-Hildebrando case). Brazilian Northeastern and Southern Region suggest that the money-laundering network may be indeed complex. Comparison of data from these three towns suggests that, linkage to money laundering networks do not have the same "positive" economic effect as does the association of money

FORMER NEXT 155 Part 1 The Eastern Amazon Basin and the Coca-Cocaine Complex Both the internal perception of the region as a national frontier of agriculture and the external perception of it as an area of Researchers have pointed out control over the territory — ecological risk, have hampered a broader view of the greater geographic or functional — as a necessary condition for indi- Amazon drainage basin. viduals and organisations carry on their activities in the illicit drug trade. Nevertheless, social scientists studying criminal or- At least two different kinds of process should be taken into ganisations often neglect the territorial dimension,a fact abun- account when considering the use of territory in the greater dantly clear in the existing literature. Could it be that for many Amazon basin.They interact,bur are distinct.The first process is social scientists territory is an empty space? A strong case has the integration of the territory into geopolitical and geo-eco- been made by Robert Sack in his study of human territoriality nomic schemes, both national and international. The second that the modern mode of thought conceives space as a frame- process concerns the agriculture and urban frontier that has work for events, thus events and space would be only contin- sprung up in the greater Amazon basin. gently related (Sack 1986,37). Nonetheless, human activities and practices are they legitimate or illegitimate make the terri- With regard to the first process, central governments, inter- tory, adapting to, knowingly interacting with what is in place, national agencies, non-governmental organisations, big busi- and actively pursuing what is not. In this sense, human territo- ness concerns,all have their stakes at play,and cannot help but riality is not a neutral but an active element, a product of com- view the region "from above".The strategic advantage of this peting strategies and projects changing over time and highly view is the ability to abstract from the human element, con- differentiated in its political,economic and cultural density.Our ceiving the territory as a set of points (places) and lines (net- purpose here is to consider some of the interactions between works), and as a subsystem of the national or international sys- the illicit drug trade and the use of territory, at the scale of the tem. The drawback is that by underestimating the living ele- Amazon basin in South America. ment, questions of conflict, legitimacy, and control are neglected. Agriculture frontier, illicit drug trade and the Amazon basin International drug trafficking organisations are the illegiti- The territory we are concerned with is the eastern section of mate dimension of the same process.The operation and logistics the greater Amazon River drainage basin in South America, an of international trafficking also demand strategies with a broader area of approximately 8 million km2. Marginally incorporated geographical perspective. In fact, a good case can be made that into the coca/cocaine complex it is mainly an alternative route traffickers are the first to use the Amazon basin successfully as a for transit and export of cocaine,and secondarily a cocaine pro- functional unit, and act in tune with events in neighbouring cessing zone,as well as intermittently used for money launder- countries. ing.The eastern section, comprising 63% of the basin, belongs to Brazil, and forms more than half of the country. Although Major coca/cocaine producing areas are located at the west- most of the Amazon basin is still covered by sparsely occupied ern border of the greater river basin, corresponding to the rain forest and tropical savannah,since the end of the 1950s the Andean piedmont and more recently,to the Amazon regions of Brazilian section has been the target of considerable efforts of Colombia,Bolivia,and to a lesser extent,Peru.Despite the lack of the central government to integrate the region to the rest of a good road transportation system,fluvial and airway transport Brazil. Rural and urban settlement projects, pioneer roads and have been able to connect the western section to the eastern other infrastructure attracted intermittent flows of immigrants one and thus to the Atlantic coast, a possibility not lost to traf- from other Brazilian regions, in the order of millions. By the fickers.Knowledge of business possibilities in the neighbouring 1980s, when the initial migratory and investment impulse had countries also helps. An example is the purchase of large tracts already begun to die down the burning and felling of trees at- of land on both sides of the international border, an age-old tracted the criticism of ecologists and the international media. means for all kinds of illegal traffic. Another example is the fi-

FORMER NEXT 156 Chapter 7 nancing of facilities and infrastructure in neighbouring coun- low-paying informal labour markets in both urban and rural ar- tries, which can be used by both illicit and licit activities and eas,with less structured links to the drug trade.It should be taken pave the way for new partnerships. into account,however,that the line between the informal and the illegal sector is very tenuous,as many analysts have shown.Both The major drawback of the view "from above" for illicit export sectors are excluded from benefits and rights,and from rules cov- and trafficking organisation schemes is obviously their greater ering property relationships. exposure to risk on the ground.Thus, the business must also integrate the view "from below". Drives for legitimacy have to be Similarities can be found between recent settlement proof a local character.Furthermore,operations depend on complex cesses in Colombia (Vargas,Barragán 1996),Bolivia (Cortez,1993; and unstable information and communication networks.To do Laserna 1997) and Brazilian Amazonia (Machado, 1992). On the business and diminish risks entails the creation of communica- ground level, the first common feature concerns the quest for tion nodes between different levels of the social and political ter- free or cheap land as the main motive for rural immigration to ritorial organisation.To ensure the flexibility of routes, money- the region.This is linked of course to the high concentration of laundering circuits and political alliances must be highly adap- land ownership that characterises the agrarian structure of each tive to different socio-political environments and include a broad country. Another common feature is the low or inexistent tech- range of actors of different incomes, schooling, and nationality. nical education of both peasants and workers.The need for sup- Therefore, unlike legitimate organisations, criminal export and plementing income by working in more than one activity is an- trafficking organisations cannot afford to consider territory as an other common feature,which can also explain the growth of the empty space.This might partially explain the tolerance or even informal labour market and labour mobility.Phases of the coloni- acceptance they enjoy in some places and groups,even without sation process are likewise similar: clearing, felling and burning bribes. of the rainforest, followed by exhaustion of soils and social differentiation of colonists,substitution of small landholdings by ex- Settlement processes in different countries share significant tensive cattle raising,and concentration of landholdings.Another characteristics, but also have important differences.Three such important similarity is the observable change in the expectations differences may immediately be mentioned. First, in the of immigrants.These are not early 20th century self-sufficient fam- Colombian, Bolivian, and more recently Peruvian Amazon re- ily farmers but candidates to profitable livelihoods and urban- gions, the greater part of the colonisation process is self-organ- based goods and services.A precarious justice system with high ised,whereas in the Brazilian Amazon the central government ac- levels of impunity, particularly of white-collar crimes, is also a tively sponsored it,in both in the institutional and the economic common characteristic. Finally, among the similarities we men- arena. Secondly, the main immigration flow to the western tion the ecological issue presented by extensive deforestation of Amazon basin was predominantly rural whereas in the Brazilian the basin. Here we somewhat diverge from the thesis that the section immigration flowed to both urban and rural areas. Rural "coca frontier" is the principal agent in deforestation.Wanton de- immigration in the western section was due; of course, to coca struction of the rainforest can be found anywhere in the basin production becoming the principle incentive for extending the and cannot be specifically tied to the coca economy. Cattle-rais- agriculture frontier,whereas in the eastern section a more diver- ing,multinational lumber firms,land market speculation by both sified allocation of resources encouraged other activities. small and large landholders, low technological and investment Nevertheless,the absence of a strong cash crop in small peasant capacity and fluctuations in the regulatory framework of the landholdings in the Brazilian section can explain the economic economy, all have a part in the deforestation process. stagnation of many colonisation areas. The third difference is more in the nature of a contingency.Whereas immigrants to the Two other aspects should be taken in account when one western section of the basin have found employment in activi- tries to make sense of the local situation and its interaction with ties connected to the drug trade in coca producing areas, immi- drug trade organisations.The first is the need to distinguish be- grants to the eastern section are overwhelmingly employed in tween the high and the low illicit drug trafficking circuit.They

FORMER NEXT 157 Chapter 7 certainly enmesh at some point but their insertion and geo- resources would encourage investment in rent-seeking activi- graphical scope of action is different.The higher circuit corre- ties whereas a stable definition of property rights would favour sponds to international drug trafficking organisations seeking investment in productive activities (1995, 9).Thus, criminal or- large-scale distribution of drugs in international markets and the ganisations would prefer to locate their investments in regions creation of complex trans-national money-laundering networks. where there are problems in the definition of property rights They also make use of legal and financial expertise.The lower cir- (1995, 25). cuit may be tied to coca producing zones and the inner workings of the producer to consumer chain, but their mode of in- Instability of property rights is a constitutive element of agri- sertion can be more casual and periodical than the former. As culture frontiers. In the case of the countries concerned, it is also pointed out by Roberto Laserna (1997, 68) individuals in the a countrywide characteristic, which makes matters worse. In the lower circuit are not necessarily specialised criminals but join Brazilian section of the basin,conflicts over property rights of land the trade to obtain needed funds for their principal (usually in- and mineral resources have been the norm of the settlement pro- formal) activity, or to supplement meagre incomes.The distinc- cess (Martins,1980;Oliveira,1987).In Colombia,where researchers tion is especially important in transit countries such as Brazil have amassed considerable data on the investment of illegal prof- where truck and taxi drivers, pilots, landholders who eventually its in legal activities,the preference of criminal organisations is to- rent land for storage of drugs, fit into these categories. Other wards rent seeking activities,such as the real estate business and links to drug trafficking activities can be found between the large rural landholdings (Vargas,1994;Thoumi et al.,1997).On the high and low circuits. One interesting example is the participa- other hand,criminal organisations also invest in productive capi- tion of small investors in the "financial drug market".Cloning the tal formation at the local level, even in environments where inef- legitimate ones, these markets operate with risk and high prof- ficient property rights prevail (Castro,1999). its, selling shares for each cocaine shipment, the quoted price depending on the quality of the product.The usual "sharehold- Modes of territorial organisation of the coca- ers" and "risk takers" are low-paid informal workers looking for cocaine complex and their effects in the eastern higher returns for their small investments. Each stop in route to Amazon region the international markets can bring a return of between 100% Since the emergence of the coca-cocaine complex in the and 500% to a group of small investors,tax-free.Most of the time Amazon basin in the 1970s,two different modes of territorial or- no direct contact with drug traffickers is necessary, only with ganisation can roughly be identified.The first mode, which pre- their "business representatives".The system operates on trust, dominated till the beginning of the 1990s, ranked Peru and following the model of informal lotteries. Bolivia as the largest producers of coca leaf and coca paste, and Colombia as major producer and exporter of cocaine.In response The second aspect concerns the investment of illegal prof- to changes in both the internal and external arena,this "division its in legal activities.This is relevant to the Amazon region, and of labour" has undergone some adjustments and given rise to a one of the key questions underlying research of the coca-co- second mode of territorial organisation. In the 1990s, Colombia caine complex is the extent to which it may foster regional eco- also became a major producer of coca leaf and coca paste.On the nomic growth.The discussion by G. Fiorentini and S. Peltzman other hand,Peru and Bolivia experienced a decrease in coca leaf (1995) of the economic approach to the study of criminal or- production and a trend towards cocaine production. In other ganisations is suggestive in this respect. Especially interesting words, there seems to be a tendency towards a vertically inte- for the Amazon region is the idea that definition of property grated mode of organisation within the limits of each country. rights may be paramount in explaining not only the origin of However, this is only a tendency; as mentioned above; illicit traf- organised crime but also the investment of illegal profits in le- ficking organisations are flexible in order to adapt itself to gal activities.Entrepreneurs allocate resources in appropriative changes in the environment. Below, we will attempt to describe (rent seeking) or productive activities depending on the rela- briefly some of the possible effects of these two modes of or- tive returns of the two activities.Inefficient property rights over ganisation in the Brazilian Amazon region.

FORMER NEXT 158 Chapter 7 It has been suggested that the functional arrangement char- number of cleared checks,only available at the state level,we find acterising the first mode of organisation could have been at least that between 1980 and 1982 there was a 55% increase in partially inspired by Colombian trafficking firms, which were the Amazonas; 67% for Rondonia and 36% for Acre, compared to an first to exploit the demand and high prices for cocaine in the average 33.5% growth for the whole country. United States market in the 1970s.Within this mode,Brazil and its Amazon region seem to have played a minor role in the South These figures are not self-explanatory. Other factors should American export network.Preferential routes to the United States be taken into account before dismissing the possibility that the stretched along the Pacific Rim with a branch crossing the Brazilian Amazon region was already being used for money op- Caribbean Sea, reaching into Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. erations since the 1980s. First, coca and cocaine production Conveying of cocaine by small aircraft was a constant of Brazilian nearly doubled in Bolivia,Peru and Colombia in the same period, law-enforcement agency reports during the 1970s and 1980s, as entailing money operations to finance trafficking activities and was the "discovery" of irregular airstrips amid the rainforest. eventually to launder profits.Nowhere in the basin,except in the Although data on seisures should be interpreted with caution,the Brazilian section,was there a network of private and public banks average figure for the whole country in the 1980s was less than linked to national and foreign financial centres and able to ex- one metric ton. With few exceptions, most of the existing data tend itself towards any place where money was circulating. comes from the Federal Police and the Federal Highway police, Second, the spread of the banking network in the Brazilian sec- the state police falling well behind in seisures.There is even less tion of the basin cannot be explained solely by immigration or consistent data for trafficking in coca paste and cocaine base. by the dynamics of economic growth. Interestingly, these were the years of the international debt crisis and stagnation of eco- If it is hard to establish exactly the extent to which the nomic growth for Brazil and the Amazon region.Finally,there was Brazilian Amazon territory was used by international trafficking a significant increase of bank agencies in all three states despite networks,data on the number of banking branches suggests that the differences in colonisation settings, amount of immigrants some of their financial operations were carried on in the region and business endeavours in each state. since at least the beginning of the 1980s. Focusing on the Brazilian states of Amazonas, Acre, and Rondonia, which border By the end of the 1980s, the second mode of territorial or- Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, the total number of bank branches ganisation had emerged.Several hypotheses have been put forth increased 76% between 1981 and 1985,compared to a 26.5% av- to explain why this happened.One of them is the "War on Drugs" erage national increase. Breaking down the total by each local effect, which increased US political and military pressure and state, we find a 38% increase in Amazonas; 82% in Acre, and presence in Andean drug-producing countries,disrupting old or- 173.5% in Rondonia. ganisations and trading routes and interfering in the division of production between these countries.Another hypothesis would This could be interpreted consequently,at least in the case of be a growing connection with organised crime in other coun- the last two states, of migratory flows to the agriculture frontier. tries, which has opened up markets in geographical areas out- However,breaking down the data even further,we find in all three side of the United States (where cocaine prices decreased). Still states that the biggest increase took place in towns with less than another would be new partnership between bordering coun- 25,000 inhabitants with a minimum level of urban functions,low- tries, disrupting old alliances. paid workers and economically weak hinterlands. Within this group of towns,the number of bank agencies grew by 58% in the Whatever the explanation, a greater portion of cocaine ex- state of Amazonas; in Acre, by 107%; and in Rondonia by 209%. ports was shifted to the Atlantic seaboard and from there to Overall, 62 towns with less than 25,000 inhabitants in the three Europe and Africa, thus increasing the importance of the states had between themselves 78 bank agencies in 1981.In 1985, Brazilian territory as transit route for international trafficking for 80 towns,including new pioneer towns,there were 163 agen- networks. In the 1990s, the average seisure of cocaine in Brazil cies, pushing the town/bank ratio up from 1.26 to 2.04. As to the was 5.24 ton,more than five times the 1980s average,although

FORMER NEXT 159 Chapter 7 the increase in seisures was also a consequence of govern- The Madre de Dios River valley after crossing Peru and Bolivia mental efforts to control illicit drug trafficking in the last merges with the Madeira River, one of the longest tributaries of decade (Machado, 1999).The sprouting up of cocaine "labs" in the Amazon River. Puerto Maldonado seat of the Peruvian de- many parts of the country and the seisure of containers ship- partment of Madre de Dios has become a transhipment node for ping coca paste and cocaine base from the far western borders cocaine base and cocaine export using small planes and boats as to towns and cities in the Atlantic seaboard indicate a greater carriers through the Brazilian states of Rondonia and Amazonas. participation in cocaine (and "crack cocaine") production. A The Beni and the Mamore rivers, other main tributaries of the number of "laboratories" have been found since the end of the Madeira River links the main coca producing zones of Bolivia,the 80s, mainly in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Yungas and the Chapare, to the states of Rondonia and Grosso do Sul, located to the south of the Amazon river valley Amazonas.And so on. and sharing a 3,126 km border with neighbouring Bolivia, crossed by railway and road.As domestic cocaine consumption The well-known association between drug trafficking and remains negligible compared to that of other countries, it is smuggling, also holds true in Brazil and in the Amazon region. reasonable to suppose that the main target is still the interna- Pathways are two-way routes: gold, electronic products, chemi- tional market. Within the limits of available information, it is cal precursors, commodities, small planes and stolen cars are probably with Bolivia that preferred partnership have been es- some of the goods smuggled out of the country in exchange for tablished. Research is currently under way to explore the rea- coca paste or cocaine, weapons or other industrial goods.This sons why Bolivia has become a favourite partner. means of course that the illicit drug trade has ramifications in many sectors of the economy. There were two other effects of the second mode of territorial organisation in the Brazilian Amazon region.The first is the The other notable effect is a tendency to concentrate drug emergence of a more complex intermodal transportation sys- trafficking and money laundering operations in a few of the tem. Rivers, roads and local, national and international airports largest towns while simultaneously extending Amazon based were more fully integrated into the logistics of the international networks to other regions of the country. It is reasonable to drug trafficking. Within this system, specific preferred routes suppose, however, that these effects could also have been the seem to have evolved between each of the three Brazilian result of interplay between the organisation of the coca-co- Amazon Border States and neighbouring countries. Thus, the caine complex and independently generated changes understate of Amazonas is the preferred route for Colombia and Peru, gone by the Amazon territory in Brazil during the 1990s. Not whereas Peru and Bolivia have stronger connections with the only has the regional urbanisation process become more in- states of Acre and Rondonia. Of course, this arrangement does tense but local entrepreneurs have intensified as well their not exclude triangular routes. For example, the port facilities at business connections with other Brazilian regions. Investment Iquitos in the Peruvian department of Loreto can receive air- strategies of the legal and the illegal economy may possibly be borne cocaine from southwestern Colombia and then ship it to converging. Brazil by way of the Amazon River (or to Lima and from there to the United States). Local economic effects of drug trafficking networks In fact, the valleys of some of the largest tributaries of the To gain some perspective in this whole process of the use of Amazon River crossing international boundaries have become territory we may consider some parallel and contrasting cases of territorial axis of drug trafficking logistics.In the northwest of the the local effects of illegal activities. In the lopsided triangle Brazilian Amazon region, the valleys of the Putamayo, Caquetá, formed by the state capitals of Porto Velho (Rondonia), Rio Vaupés connect the Colombian coca producing agriculture fron- Branco (Acre) and Manaus (Amazonas),Manaus has become the tier to the sparsely occupied lower valleys of their Brazilian coun- centre and principal beneficiary of illicit drug export organisa- terparts —respectively,the Iça,Japurá,and Uaupés-Negro rivers. tions operating in the eastern section of the Amazon basin.

FORMER NEXT 160 Chapter 7 Besides its function as state capital and Foreign Trade Zone, socialising networks cross-country, brought together by immi- which has made it the highest-ranking "metropolis" of the gration processes in particular geographical locations,may help Amazon Basin, the city (one million inhabitants, 1996), has be- explain the emergence of this kind of environment in the states come a strategic transhipment node for the high circuit of co- of Acre and Rondonia. Groups of local entrepreneurs in these caine international trafficking. Since the end of the 1960s it is a states have sought and found functions to be performed and point of entry for Japanese European and US imports (electric- profits to be earned by linkages to cocaine export organisations. electronic components), exporting the finished products to the rest of Brazil and to other countries. Blending with the urban The town of Cacoal (44,811 inhabitants, 1996) in Rondonia economy,a wholesaling centre for cocaine exports has emerged may exemplify such a process. It was a striving pioneer town in with connections to the Brazilian Northeastern and Southeastern the 1970s,part of a colonisation project sponsored by the federal regions,Venezuela and the Guyanas.Manaus contains 67% of the government. Like other pioneer towns it was placed along the state’s 120 banking agencies (1999),up from the 56% registered main road of access to the state. Southward, the road links the in 1996.Not only did the city concentrate 48% of the state’s total state to the "core region" of Brazil in the Atlantic seaboard;north- population in 1996, but also 76.6% of the state’s nine billion US ward, by road to the state of Acre and by the Madeira River to dollars gross domestic product (GDP). Manaus. Like many pioneer towns, its function as an urban service centre for settlers was stunted by the mediocre economic On the other extreme of the urban and illicit trafficking net- performance of small to medium-sized landholdings in the sur- work hierarchy,the "town" of Atalaia do Norte (2,914 inhabitants), rounding area. Both rural and urban immigrants came mainly situated in the Peruvian frontier and an alternative transit point from the developed areas of the Southwest and South of Brazil has a GDP of five million US dollars (1996) and two (legal) air- but also from the impoverished Northeast and from the neigh- fields. Nearly all labour (96%) is employed informally. Another bouring state of Mato Grosso. transit point, the even smaller "town" of Japurá (1,433 inhabitants, 1996) in the Caquetá-Japurá river has one of the lowest In the beginning of the 1980s, a road was built linking the GDP of the state of Amazonas, less than one million US dollars, area to the border of Bolivia,some 450 km to the west of Cacoal. one airstrip and 98% of labour employed in informal activities.As In 1980, the town had 17 634 inhabitants, but between 1981 traffickers use transit routes intermittently, small towns and vil- and 1985 the number of banks jumped from 4 to 9 and the im- lages along the way have little to gain on the long run. port-export business soured. In the next decade, while the Nevertheless, the "long run" is nothing to the local population; number of banks decreased the urban population grew (46,811 their point of view is "here and now". The building of a simple inhabitants,1996) to become the forth largest town in the state; port infrastructure, a meagre increase in the number of visitors one mayor became state governor; and a satellite service, pre- and small money inputs into local trade is what (understandably) dominantly used for electronic money transfers, was installed. matters to them. The township’s GDP of a little more than 220 million dollars in 1996, mostly from the service sector and industrial sectors Links to low and high drug traffic and money laundering cir- (71%),is not entirely consistent with the value of cleared checks cuits matters seriously when they are perceived as a chance for (one billion four hundred fifty eight US dollars).Nor is the value a "take-off" or for "multiplier effects" on the fortune of individu- of checks consistent to the 1996 total GDP of the surrounding als or localities.This is more than solving a cash problem or lack municipalities (one billion six hundred forty US dollars). By the of employment opportunities. This is to take opportunity of end of the nineties alternative drug trading and money laun- quick enrichment a step further than a chance event.Inefficient dering routes and business centres have sprung up elsewhere property rights cannot explain by themselves why this happens in Rondonia.The town still struggles for survival,one or two in- in some places and not in others. A conjunction of circum- dividuals are pointed out as having made money with cocaine stances such as ethno-cultural heterogeneity, a profit-seeking trafficking in the past,smuggling still goes on at the border but mentality and the potential to establish business, political and on a lesser pace, and local entrepreneurs are fighting for less

FORMER NEXT 161 Chapter 7 taxes, more credit and better roads. A lot of money has passed appropriate technical measures.By adopting this approach,the through the town and the region. Some of it stayed there, in- Brazilian government is joining what has been called the "inter- vested in big cattle ranches or store chains. Nevertheless, their national nexus" of drug control, led by high politics (depart- owners are rarely seen,having ascended to other legitimate (or ments of foreign affairs,defense department)(2).Money launder- illegitimate) activities elsewhere in the region,the country or in ing is also contemplated by these macro-policies as an illegal foreign parts. On the other hand, dozens of towns with similar and connected activity, but the trend is to treat it as an eco- stories of linkages to the illicit drug trade can move the local nomic more than political issue. economy by attracting legitimate business such as airway companies, banking, multinational chemical firms, and so on. The purpose of this section is to examine how these new policies come together in the Brazilian Amazon region, the Concluding Remarks main target-area for their enforcement.Our study’s assumption The territory of the Amazon basin is on the brink of new is that control of both activities has different political and eco- events, in both the western and eastern sections. In the western nomic implications.Control of transnational drug trafficking in- section, conflicts between the military, drug traffickers, leftist side national borders is susceptible to a three-layered environ- guerrilla movements, coca producers, national and foreign gov- ment, namely, local politics, regional development alternatives ernments has reached a new level of tension and action. In the and US geo-strategy in Latin America.On the other hand, mea- eastern section, the Brazilian government is trying to counter sures to counter money laundering involves domestic eco- possible spill over effects of these conflicts by a stronger pres- nomic and financial policies and are particularly susceptible to ence along the border, and at the same time promote develop- the degree in which international banking and financial system ment projects as an alternative to illegal drug trafficking activi- perceives this activity to be a threat to its own stability. ties. On the other hand, ecologists are worried with the use of chemicals to destroy coca plantations and with projects that en- The chapter is organised as follows: subsection I briefly dis- danger the rainforest. But as aptly observed by a social scientist cusses the definition and scope of the institutional and legisla- some years ago in this same journal, neither reasons of state, sation framework being built to establish minimum control mech- cred ideologies,or strategic planning of the future can justify dis- anisms of transnational drug trafficking and money laundering dain for the interests of the people (Rahnema, 1988). in the Brazilian territory. Subsection II discusses some of the political and economic implications of these new policies. Geopolitical implications of drug trafficking control in the Drug Trafficking Control Measures Amazon region are explored in Subsection III. and their Geostrategical Implications in the Amazon Region Macropolicies The creation of an institutional structure to deal with inter- In the last few years,measures to counter transnational drug national drug trafficking and money laundering is recent.In 1996 trafficking and money-laundering networks have become the the government launched the National Antidrug Plan,after much focus of an intense effort of the Brazilian government, leading discussions and negotiation rounds both in the domestic scene to the adoption of a specific legislation and the forging of an in- and abroad.The launching of the National Defense Policy was in stitutional framework. By acknowledging that these activities effect the proposal of a new approach to defense strategy.The are linked to global organised crime and to domestic and inter- document evaluates that changes in the world order demands national corruption schemes, the government is bringing to- new directives for internal and external defense issues,foremost gether previously isolated problems, thus changing the con- the re-examination of the limits to the power of national states. (2) The "international nexus" is patent in Laurent ception of the subject. One of the changes is to consider One of the directives outlined in the document was military sup- Laniel’s excellent report of the United Nation transnational drug trafficking control policy an "internal secu- port to anti-drug operations and the displacement of Army Summit on Drugs. rity" issue instead of a police problem that can be resolved by troops from the Southern Cone to the Amazon region and

FORMER NEXT 162 Chapter 7 boundary zones. Finally, in 1999, the federal government was when the Federal Police became the sole responsible for re- able to assemble an institutional structure and legislation con- pression policies and field actions. On the other hand, Army cerning anti-drug and anti-money laundering macro policies. Intelligence offices began working more closely with the Federal Police. a) Institutional-building The model for institutional-building was the network. The The Ministry of Justice (1996) originally planned the COAF idea was to overcome divisions and structural antagonisms of (Council for the Control of Financial Activities) as an empowered the bureaucracy by bringing them together and stimulating ne- group in charge of regulating, identifying and investigating gotiation processes. Albeit the encompassing name — the money laundering activities. Along the way some fundamental National Anti-drug System,the institutional structure effectively changes were made,such as subordinating COAF to the Treasury separates drug trafficking and money laundering control pro- and somewhat reducing its power of regulation and investiga- grams, closely following the international reference model that tion (1998).The Central Bank, the Internal Revenue Service and distinguishes the nature and scope of each issue. the Federal Police are the key players in the Council (Figure 2). COAF’s structure also follows the general recommendations of Drug trafficking control was initially carried out by a special international institutions,as OECD and UNDCP,by positioning it- secretariat (SENAD) and by a council (CONAD) directly linked to self as a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Brazil, Argentina and the Presidency (Figure 1). The key node of the network is the Mexico, initially invited to the meetings of the Financial Action Institutional Security Cabinet.Until very recently,and for the last Task Force (FATF) as observers, were finally accepted as mem- sixty-three years,it was the Military Cabinet of the Presidency,by bers.The opening, considered as an important step to the ne- tradition an office headed by a high rank army officer. One goal gotiated adoption of the 40 FATF recommendations, means in of the institutional reform is the subordination of the military to effect the adaptation of anti-money laundering measures to the civilians in governmental hierarchy;another is the structuring of increasing freedom of financial flows (and not the other way an Intelligence agency. By linking the agency to a civilian around).Membership in the FATF also implies abandoning a re- Institutional Security Cabinet, the government may now open gional approach to money laundering control, which tends to the way to negotiate its creation with a renitent Congress. ignore the global nature of the problem.

The anti-drug secretariat’s main function was to integrate all b) Legislation governmental policies for the prevention and repression of il- Anti-drug legislation in Brazil has been intermittent since licit trafficking and of drug abuse, including the definition of 1938.Laws and regulations were mainly concerned with domes- policies for the treatment of addicts.It was also responsible for tic use of narcotics and, secondly, pharmaceutical drugs. Brazil the administration of bilateral agreements concerning transna- signed the 1961 Single Convention of Narcotics Drug, the 1971 tional drug trafficking. As Figure 1 shows, from 1976 onwards Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and the Brazilian government signed treaties with all neighboring Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 United Nations countries, mainly with those located around the Amazon River Convention (Vienna). During the 1980s, there were more laws, basin.This seems to indicate that the government did not en- acts and regulations concerning drug trafficking and correlated tirely underestimate the possible effects of the cocaine boom activities than at any other time before. However, the forfeiture of the 1970s in the Amazon region. On the other hand, from act and the creation of a special fund with assets seised in drug- 1990 onwards, the geographical scope of diplomatic agree- connected crimes,formally adopted at the time,were not implements has expanded, a reflection of the new parameters shap- mented. In 1995, a comprehensive law established control of ing decision-making.A year later,tensions between the SENAD chemical precursors for cocaine production and regulation of and the Federal Police caused by conflict over who should be money and values transportation firms.Finally,in 1998 (October), responsible for drug trafficking repression and intelligence cul- a special governmental Act created the National Anti-drug minated in the anti-drug secretariat losing much of its power System.

FORMER NEXT 163 Chapter 7 Regulations pertaining to money laundering started in Macro policies Implications 1999, after the 1998 law that made it a criminal offence (the same law created the COAF).Of the underlying activities related a) Political Implications to laundering, the law targets the profits from illicit drug traf- Unrelenting political pressure exercised by the United States ficking, arms smuggling and extortion by kidnapping. The had much to do with the decision to create the Anti-drug System. Ministry of Justice was adamant in emphasizing the connection The first to agree to this contention, of course, would be the US with drug trafficking, a decision that limited the general scope government. It has repeatedly stated that diplomatic and politi- of the law but was instrumental for its speedy approval by cal power should be used in integrating international drug con- Congress.The limitation was somewhat atoned by another gov- trol into the overall policy interests of governments in the ernment measure during 1998. Americas (Van Wert, 1988; International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1991), in addition to internationalising the The Bank Secrecy Act entailed an amendment to the drug/narcotics control regime (McAllister,1995;Escohotado,1994; Constitution. It was the first time in thirty three years that Musto, 1999). Nevertheless, even if it is an important — indeed changes were introduced in bank secrecy rules.The model was the dominant — factor, US political pressure is a purely contin- the US Bank Secrecy Act (originally passed into law in 1970) gent matter.Other factors may explain the political implications which provides law enforcement with two basic tools: a paper of macro policies concerning international drug trafficking in trail of bank records to be maintained up to five years and the Brazilian territory. filing of a report by financial institutions whenever a currency transaction exceeds $10.000 (the same limit applied in Brazil). First,a complex situation has emerged in the world system of Included in suspicious transaction reporting requirements are nation states, with the increase in the number of activities, like- wire transfers, bank checks, bank drafts or other written orders wise decision-making, taking place at the global level (financial of transfer and cashier checks. Bank secrecy can be broken af- flows, environmental management, communication networks, ter a criminal process is underway and information on bank ac- technology, organised crime, and international police). States counts can be supplied by the Central Bank, and by private adapt to this situation by developing new forms of adaptation banking and financial institutions, to several government and defense. A case in point is the extensive program of eco- branches. nomic liberalisation and state reform undertaken by Brazil and other Latin American countries. In the aftermath of theses Law and regulations concerning money-laundering activities changes,governments have had to assimilate (or turn away) po- did not include basic banking and foreign exchange laws, al- tentially hostile external and internal forces. From a state- though banking rules designed for legitimate business but not (re)building perspective,the product is a network of juxtaposed covered by anti-laundering legislation usually help money laun- components.Thus, control of illicit drug trafficking and money dering and tax evasion. For example, in Brazil, the Central Bank laundering are not isolated decisions, but part of a comprehen- Rule 5 (CC-5) permits the opening up of dollar accounts by for- sive political effort to maintain state legitimacy and adjust the in- eign-based firms to make legitimate business transactions.It has stitutional environment to the increasing pressure of a "local- been consistently used by firms and individuals,usually with the global" world system. mediation of offshore centres,as an instrument to bring back,or send overseas, proceeds of tax evasion (which re-enters the Second, the building up of an institutional framework is giv- country as foreign investment capital), corruption rings, contra- ing a new political status to the control of illicit activities by sig- band or drug trafficking. naling that it involves much more than drug peddlers and police activities. Perhaps the single most important effect is encouraging competition between and within organisations (political parties, the administration, pressure groups) in the investigation of linkages between transnational drug trafficking and domestic

FORMER NEXT 164 Chapter 7 corruption networks,that is,the corruption of democratic politics issue. Second, the fear that troops and officers directly engaged (Castells, 1998; Fraga, 1998). In 1998-1999 a Congressional inves- in anti-drug combats are opened to corruption. In 1999, thirty- tigation on drug trafficking has made headlines by finally un- five kilos of cocaine was found in an Air Force plane bound for veiling a widespread drug trafficking-money laundering-corrup- Europe, launching an ongoing investigation of officers and Air tion network run by well known politicians and members of the Forces bases involved in drug transport.Third, a greater involve- criminal justice and law enforcement local state apparatus (the ment in anti-drug operations could undermine the Army’s pre- Acre case). sent policy of participation in welfare and social logistics support, particularly in border zones. As mentioned above, the National On the other hand, competition within the administration is Defense Strategy carefully states that the role of military forces also a source of tension and obstruction of information flows. in anti-drug efforts is to offer logistic and intelligence support. Complaints of Central Bank delays in conveying information to the Anti-rug Secretariat (SENAD) investigation efforts, or defense and b) Economic implications foreign affairs administrators at odds with the Internal Revenue In the 1990’s, a majority of Latin American governments, in- Service and the Federal Police in matters of strategy and enforce- cluding Brazil,embarked in a developmental program strongly ment are cases in point. It is not only a question of different ad- anchored on the liberalisation of financial markets and the ministrative goals but of linkages with other networks. For exam- opening up of the banking sector to international banking net- ple,the most successful operations of the Federal Police are based works.Intensification of cross-border capital flows and the mul- on information handed out by US Intelligence agencies. Law en- tiplication of financial services is paramount to the efforts of forcement is hindered by lack of personnel,funds and organisation these countries to attract international investment capital. level to deal with long-term investigations and access to informa- Linkages to the international money market, however, seem to tion abroad.Because of their dependence on outside information, present at least two inconvenient side effects:one is a larger de- the Federal Police has been criticised for giving precedence to out- gree of exposure to financial fluctuations at the global level; the bound "flows" of illicit drugs, a US government priority, instead of other, a greater exposure to international money laundering targeting them at their entrance in Brazilian territory. schemes.

Finally,building up an institutional framework run by civil ad- Although financial experts seem to have reached the conclu- ministrators and subjected to civil codes is an important move to sion that laundered money from illegal sources comprises a small withstand the pressure for a greater involvement of the Armed portion of the trillions of dollars flowing around the globe, they Forces in anti-drug operations. For some years now, US "war on also point out that the portion may be a significant one (UNDCP, drugs" experts have tried to convince the Brazilian Army to have 1998).Accumulated balances of laundered assets and legitimate a more active participation in field operations,following the pat- assets held by criminal organisations are probably much larger tern put into place in neighboring countries.Understandably,na- than the annual money laundering flows estimated by interna- tionalist feelings play an important role in the Army’s refusal in tional organisations.The problem is the difficulty of measuring subordinating itself to US civilian and military personnel. Closer proceedings of a concealed activity,both in the domestic and in- to home, however, there are other powerful motives. ternational level. A commonly accepted devise is to look for "traces" of money laundering, that is, indirect techniques of ob- First, since the end of the military dictatorship (1964-1984), servation, by indicators or proxies.Colombian researchers work- the Brazilian Army has painfully struggled through a legitimacy ing at the local level (Vargas, 1994; Reyes, 1997) have used direct crisis and has partly succeeded in regaining public confidence. methods of observation;the author in a regional level (Machado, To act as a "police force" in local operations would be a serious 1998) used indirect techniques. setback,considering the low public confidence in policemen (see Zaluar,1994).The fiasco of their anti-drug trafficking intervention Exposure to money laundering activities is not only a matter in Rio de Janeiro some years ago corroborates their stand in the of "hot money" flowing through the stock markets. Privatisation

FORMER NEXT 165 Chapter 7 programs and the deregulation of domestic banking systems anti-money laundering legislation. Its economic effects for the also play a major role.In Latin America,control of bank assets has nation state, however, can be at least as serious as money laun- moved to the hands of large international banking houses oper- dering. ating through global networks.For example,in Argentina,foreign control of the country’s total bank assets has jumped from 17% Small amounts can easily be moved abroad,by depositing lo- to 53%, between 1992 and the first semester of 1997; in cal currency in a bureau of exchange and having them reappear Colombia, from 11% to 51%; in Mexico, from 2% to 59% (Gazeta abroad in whatever the strong currency chosen, usually dollars. Mercantil, 1999). For Brazil, the figures are less expressive (7% to Large amounts can be moved by a variety of methods. One of 14% in 1997, to 22% in 1998); public banks still hold 27% of as- them is the "private banking" services offered by large domestic sets, down 44% since 1992, and national private banks, the rest. and international banking institutions. In 1990, two foreign and Several local state banks have been shut down in the last couple one domestic bank provided services. By the end of last year, of years, most of them in the Amazon and Northeastern regions there were 30 financial institutions offering the service. Studies of the country. by financial consulting firms show an increase in the use of private banking in Brazil: in the last three years, domestic deposits Indeed,one of the reasons for the increasing attention paid jumped from an estimated US$ 25 billion to US$ 45 billion; off- by governments, international organisations and the interna- shore deposits increased from an estimated 60 to 80 billion dol- tional banking system to money laundering activities is the ef- lars (Gazeta Mercantil, June, 1999). Did tougher tax laws and the fect it may have on economic and financial liberalisation (Quirk, Bank Secrecy Act stimulate the move towards private banking,a 1996). Adoption and implementation of international anti- legitimate banking activity? The probable answer is yes, since a money laundering standards are not entirely consistent with (loose) correlation can be made between initial discussions of opening up domestic markets to cross-border money flows. bank secrecy laws and the beginning of private banking services success. There is at least one economic implication of anti-money laundering legislation worth a closer look in Brazil, that of tax Geostrategy Implications of Drug Trafficking evasion and capital flight.The Internal Revenue Service has es- Control in the Amazon Region timated a $ 490 billion per year loss in taxes (1996). The To the west of the river basin,on the mountains of the Andes, amount of money moved by the underground economy in lies the coca producing areas of Bolivia and Peru. In the north- Brazil is probably larger, if one takes into account illegal, unre- west portion of the basin, coca is produced in the Amazon low- ported and unrecorded earnings, and the informal economy. lands of Colombia.Unlike Peru and Bolivia,where coca has been Although anti-money laundering legislation did not include produced since pre-Incaic times,the Colombian coca-producing tax evasion, the Bank Secrecy Act has become a powerful in- zone sprouted up after the coca boom of the late 1970s and early strument in the hands of the government and its effects are 1980s. Colombia is the centre of drug processing and drug traf- starting to appear. In October of 1999, for example, the ficking for foreign markets; the three Andean countries produce Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo refused a 90 per cent of worldwide cocaine production of which roughly governmental program settling debts with the government 73 per cent comes from Colombia (Thoumi,1995;UNIDCP,1998). and the IRS because it also demanded reporting cash flows (Folha de S.Paulo, October, 1999). Although drug processing "plants" or "laboratories" have been found in Brazil,international drug trafficking organisations If proceedings from tax evasion were invested in productive make use of the territory as a transit corridor and export plat- activities within the country, losses for the economy would be form, while using the modern domestic banking system as a partly compensated. However, in Brazil, tax evasion is intimately money-laundering alternative.Seisures of cocaine by the Federal connected to capital flight.Capital flight is not considered a crim- Police in Brazilian Amazonia represented 77 percent of a total of inal activity by international financial standards and is left off 4 tons in 1997, and 60 percent of the 5,8 tons seised in 1998

FORMER NEXT 166 Chapter 7 (Federal Police Report, 1999). Small airplanes and motor boats pliant partner.After leaving office he returned to the family busi- have been forfeited in special operations (Operação Porteira ness, and is still a major figure in state politics; he is also been Fechada Norte). However, these figures should be interpreted prosecuted by the Internal Revenue Service for tax evasion and with caution,since cocaine seised in other regions may have en- by the Office of the Attorney General for corruption. tered through the North, and there are no estimates of the amount of cocaine entering the country. In May 1999, a Congressional hearing on drug trafficking started to investigate a newly elected fellow Congressman,for- Below we will try to extract some of the political and eco- merly a state military officer and member of the state legisla- nomic features bearing on anti-drug trafficking control measures ture who, allegedly, was the head of an "extermination group" at the local level.A more systematic evaluation of the local effects involved with kidnapping, deaths and drug trafficking in the of drug trafficking is being carried out but for now the aim is to state of Acre. Judges, lawyers and witnesses revealed details bring together macropolicies implications in a regional perspec- concerning the deals of the Congressman and the political tive.A three-scaled approach permits some insights on the issue. events surrounding them.The Office of the Attorney General had known of the Congressman’s involvement with drug traf- a) Local politics and domestic corruption networks ficking organisations since 1997 but stated that it was still col- During the month of October 1995,several newspapers carried lecting evidence.On the other hand,the Office had asked to ac- front-page stories on the possible involvement of the governor of cess to the Congressman’s bank account and tax report, based Acre (a state located along the Peru-Brazil-Bolivia boundary) with on the Bank Secrecy Act, but the regional office of the Internal Colombian drug trafficking organisations.The politician was a rich Revenue Service had not complied.The Centre for the Defense construction contractor who had started his political career as for Human Rights in Acre and the president of the state Court mayor of Cruzeiro do Sul, one of the main gateway towns for in- of Justice of Acre in 1997 had denounced some of the crimes in bound drug trafficking (see Machado,1998).In the course of an in- 1997.Media coverage and the cooperation of the current state vestigation conducted by federal authorities on grounds of cor- governor (elected by an opposing political party (Partido dos ruption and tax evasion, he was charged for leasing of a Boeing Trabalhadores) in 1999 but no steps were taken by the criminal 727-200, by one of his business firms from a US company (IAL justice system.The Congressman furnished cocaine and pot for Aircraft Holding) with head office in Miami and a branch in addicts and had then used this to convince them to vote for Panama.The second charge was an agreement with a Colombian him. During the term of the ex-governor of Acre (mentioned business firm for a US$ 165 million loan to be invested in upgrad- above), a brother of the accused headed the state military po- ing the main state highway.The same firm had an agreement with lice,another was a member of the state legislature and a sister- the governor of Rondonia for a US$ 700 million loan,approved by in-law was head of the local State Attorney Office. Referring to the State legislature, to be used in highway construction and the accused politician as "colonel" (the traditional informal ti- house building for low-income families. Both governors alleged tle of rural political kingpins in Brazil), an ex-police detective that they had to look for investors somewhere,to make good their and member of the extermination group declared to the campaign promises. In the Acrean case the state government of- Congressional hearings that the group between 1995 and 1998 fered large extensions of state-held lands as guaranty.By sending had killed at least 40 people.The specific role of the accused in (3)The local state-owned Bank of Rondonia (Western Amazonia) was also shut down last year. After serv- the agreement to the Central Bank for approval and because of the drug trafficking activity was to steal containers with the aid of ing for years as "shell" host for laundering the pro- barrage of accusations thrown at him by rival fellow politicians,the state military police and trade them for cocaine and firearms in ceedings of local drug trafficking networks, it made governor finally attracted the attention of the public and both Bolivia. He has close personal ties with an important Acrean the headlines because of its involvement in a deriva- deals cancelled. businessperson, who controls the meat market in the state tives speculation-money laundering scheme in the through 70 outlets and has been connected to drug trafficking state of São Paulo. Interestingly enough, its disap- (3) pearance has not seem to have caused impact on the In 1998,during the process of closing the state bank of Acre , networks by the Federal Police. Finally, connections with a cor- local economy albeit the number of agencies,one for the Central Bank reported a series of irregularities and fraud in ruption network in the Northeastern states of Piaui and each county. banking operations,nominally indicating the governor as a com- Maranhão, involving state military police, state judges, mayors

FORMER NEXT 167 Chapter 7 and state prosecutors were revealed. After being voted out of versity among the main immigrant flows, and between them Congress, the politician was jailed and 26 members of the and the natives. For 1996, the gross domestic product (GDP) of group have been indicted. However, there are still not enough Amazon states was US$37,9 billion; that is 5,5 per cent of the evidence to convict him for drug trafficking. country’s GDP.Population is in the order of 13, 5 million inhabitants, (8, 5 per cent of total population), most of them living in These stories are unfortunately banal in its details; similar urban areas (64,5 per cent).An urban service economy,lumber cases have happened in the more undeveloped areas of Brazil(4) and mineral extraction,cattle raising and soy-bean crop are the and other Latin American countries.Nevertheless,it merits some main regional economic activities. comments. Although covered by a sophisticated communication-satellite The idea that modernisation in society induces the replace- system, the territory lacks a minimum level of infrastructure de- ment of parochial corruption by modern corruption (market velopment. International criticism of the massive deforestation corruption) does not seem to apply here. What does seem to process since the 1970s, the drying up of governmental funding apply, albeit related to a very different environment, are two sources in the 1980s and the "politicalisation" of environmental ideas put forth by Cartier-Bresson (1997) in his discussion of change since then, are some of the factors that effectively corruption networks. First, corruption network is structured by thwarted investments in infrastructure.Even so,comparatively to mobilising multiple "resources" such as financial interests,obe- neighboring countries, Brazil’s Amazon region presents a fair de- dience to hierarchy, family, friends (political, regional and cor- gree of transport connections to the Atlantic seaboard, which porative in our stories), violence (p.469); second, in institution- helps explain why drug trafficking organisations could use the realised large scale corruption, the network appears as an exten- gion as transit corridor. sion of social legal networks. One should bear in mind that contrary to the traditional peas- Another point to be made is that proximity to coca produc- ant society encountered in neighboring countries; Brazilian ing countries and the use of territory as transit corridor for drug Amazonia is urban-oriented and largely settled by an urban bred trafficking created an opportunity for those seeking enrichment population. Frustrated expectations, lack of credit and funds for and power but it is difficult if not impossible to establish a cause individual and business undertakings, the thriving of an urban- and effect relationship between these random conditions and based clientelistic system based on selective distribution of ben- violence.Institutional crisis,a clientelistic political system,and a efits creates a receptive environment for drug trafficking organ- growing gap between a formal regime and the political and eco- isations investment, loans and patronage. nomic reality are some of the social conditions that breed violence (Thoumi,1995:Chap.2);however,cooptation of individuals A sustainable development approach to regional economics, and institutions by drug trafficking networks increases the level the overall effort to curtail economic instability and an emphasis of violence and "organises" its use. on economic interchange with neighboring countries may perhaps change the situation.Current governmental efforts are cen- b) Regional development alternatives treed on development projects situated along intermodal A host of factors hinders economic development of the thruways connecting the region to the Caribean Sea basin, and Brazilian portion of the Amazon River basin. For example, long on energy transmission lines to Venezuelan and Bolivian energy distances and absence of an adequate infrastructure; a low level sources. of credit in both public and private banks; speculative investments; a weak educational system; a highly concentrated land c) US geo-strategy in the Amazon region tenure system.Further aggravating social tensions are the con- From the Brazilian perspective,two components of the United (4) See Christian Geffray’s report on Mato Grosso centration of income and wealth,which feeds an extensive un- States conception of drug control strategy must be emphasised. (Geffray, 1995). derground economy, and the social, economic and cultural di- One is the development by the US of a technological, informa-

FORMER NEXT 168 Chapter 7 tional, and intelligence system applied to anti-drug efforts; the other is to encourage in Latin America increased levels of nation military involvement in anti-drug trafficking operations with US military support to the anti-drug forces of the host nation.

The mobilisation by the United States of its considerable technological and informational resources points to an "informational age" geopolitical thought where national boundaries matter less and information networks more. The US policy on "supply-reduction operations at the source", however, pushes it back to traditional geopolitical thinking where territory, its geographical content and political institutions are essential, hence the second component.

The implementation of an informational-based surveillance system for Brazilian Amazonia (Sistema de Vigilância da Amazônia-SIVAM) was conceived in this context.The surveillance system is based on the use of remote sensing,satellites and geographical information system (GIS) to be developed jointly by the Brazilian Government and an important U.S.defense contractor, Raytheon.It was the American company,however,who arranged international loans and furnishes the more sophisticated technology.The Air Force,who sponsored the arrangement,was criticised by sectors of the Army and by intellectuals and academics that feared (fear) that the US would have access and better conditions to information processing then the Brazilians.The winning argument was that Brazil did not have economic and technological conditions to create the system by itself. On the other hand, the implementation of SIVAM let off some of the pressure exercised by U.S.anti-drug forces over the Army.

FORMER NEXT 169 Chapter 7 FIORENTINI,G.,PELTZMAN, S.(eds.) 1995.The Economics of Bibliography Organised Crime.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

AMIN,A.,THRIFT,N.1993."Globalisation,institutional thickness and FRAGA, R.1998."El fenómeno de la corrupción", local prospects".Revue d’économie regionale et urbaine 3: 398-416 Contribuiciones 1: 181-2000

BANCO CENTRAL DO BRASIL. 1996."Indicadores Econômicos. GAZETA MERCANTIL.1999."Cresce a participação estrangeira no Brasília mercado", Gazeta Mercantil 16/09/99 GAZETA MERCANTIL.1999."Fortunas de US$ 45 bi no private BECKER, B.et al.1990.Fronteira Amazônica.Questões sobre a gestão banking", Gazeta Mercantil 09/06/99 do território.Rio de Janeiro: UFRJ/UNB. GEFFRAY, C.1995.Rapport d’Activité — Enquête Mato Grosso", BUSINESS WEEK.1994."The Global Battle for Capital". oct.- nov. Business Week 3, October LASERNA, R.1997."La economía de la coca en Bolivia: cinco pre- CARTIER-BRESSON, J.1997."Corruption Networks,Transaction guntas y una duda" in M.Hopenhayn, (org.).La Grieta de las Drogas. Security and Illegal Social Exchange", Political Studies XLV: 463-476 Desintegración social y políticas públicas en América Latina. Santiago de Chile: CEPAL CASTELLS, M.1998.End of Millenium.London: Blackwell LAW, J.1994.Organising Modernity.Oxford: Blackwell CASTRO,B.C.1999."Adensamentos Urbanos em Rondônia".Master’s thesis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. LEEUW,S.E., MCGLADE, J.1993."Information, coherence et dynamique urbaines" in D.Pumain, B.Lepetit. COLOMBO, G.2000."The Role of Slush Funds in the Preparation of Temporalités Urbaines, Paris, Anthropos Corruption Mechanisms",TI Working Paper: 1-7 MACHADO, L.1992."A fronteira agrícola na Amazônia Brasileira", CORTEZ, R.1993."Coca y cocaleros en Bolivia" in H.Tovar P.(org.) Revista Brasileira de Geografia 54(2): 27-54. La coca y las economías de exportación en América Latina. MACHADO, L.1996."O comércio ilícito de drogas e a geografia da Albolote: Ariel. integração financeira:uma simbiose?" in I.Castro et al.(org.).Questões Atuais da Reorganisação do Território, DELBLONO,F.1995."Discussion of Vito Tanzi’s paper" in G.Fiorentini, Rio de Janeiro, Bertrand, p.15-64 S.Peltzman (eds).The Economics of Organised Crime, p.181-182 MACHADO,L.1998."Les mouvements d’argent et le trafic de drogue en Amazonie brésilienne",Autrepart N.S.8: 141-158 DE MAILLARD et al. (1998).Un Monde sans loi.La criminalité MACHADO, L.1999."Drug trafficking control measures and their financière en image.Paris: Stock geostrategic implications in the Amazon region", Most-Unesco III International Conference on the Economic and Social transformations DIAS, L.C.1995.Réseaux d´Information et Réseaux urbains au Brésil. connected with the International Drug Problem.New Delhi. Paris: L’Harmattan. MACHADO, L.2000."Limites e Fronteiras.Da alta diplomacia aos circuitos de ilegalidade".Revista Território 8: 9-29 DUPUY, G.1991.L’Urbanisme des Reseaux.Paris: Armand Colin MARTINS, J.S.1980.Expropriação e Violência.A questão política no ESCOHOTADO,A.1994.Historia de las drogas,vol.2,Alianza Ed,3rd ed. campo.São Paulo: Hucitec

FORMER NEXT 170 Chapter 7 - Bibliography McALLISTER,W.B.1995."The International Nexus:Where Worlds THOUMI,F.1995.Political Economy & Illegal Drugs in Colombia.Studies Collide" in B.M.Bagley & W.O.Walker III (eds.),Drug Trafficking in the on the Impact of the Illegal Drug Trade, Lynne Rienner Americas,North-South Centre Press,p.521-533 ______.et al.1997.Drogas ilícitas en Colombia.Su impacto económico,político y social.Bogotá: Ariel, PNUD. MUSTO,D.F.1999.The American Disease:Origins of Narcotics Control, Oxford Univ.Press, 3rd ed. THRIFT,N.,LEYSHON,A.1994."A phantom state? The de-traditionalization of money, the international financial OLIVEIRA, A.1987.Amazonia.Monopólio,Expropriação e Conflitos. system and international financial centres". São Paulo: Papirus Political Geography 13(4): 299-327

QUIRK, P.1996."Macroeconomic Implications of Money UNIDCP.1998.World Drug Report.London: Oxford University Press Laundering",IMF Working Paper 96/66,International Monetary Fund VAN WERT, J.M.1988."The U.S.Department’s Narcotics Control RAHNEMA, M.1988."Poder y procesos regenerativos en los mi Policy in the Americas".Journal of Interamerican Studies and World croespacios".Revista Internacional de Ciencias Sociales 117:385-400. Affairs, n° 2/3: 1-18

REYES POSADA.1997.A."Compra de tierras por narcotraficantes" in VARGAS, R.(org.) 1994.Drogas,Poder y Región en Colombia.Bogotá: F.Thoumi et alli, Drogas Ilícitas en Colombia.Su impacto económico, CINEP.Volume 1 and 2. político y social, Ariel, Pnud, DNE VARGAS, R., BARRAGÁN, J.1996."Drugs-linked crops and rural ROSE-ACKERMANN, S.1997.Corruption and Development, development in Colombia", Narcotics and Development Discussion Washington,World Bank, Annual Conference on Development Papers 10:1-24 Economies VOGL, F.1998."The supply side of corruption — does SACK,R.1986.Human Territoriality.Its Theory and History.Cambridge: the developing world have to carry the full weight of global Cambridge University Press anti-corruption efforts?".Transparency International Working Paper,July. SALAMA, P.2000(?).L’économie des narcodollars.Miméo.Paris. ZALUAR, A.1994.Condomínio do diabo.Rio de Janeiro: SANTOS, M.1996.A natureza do espaço.S.Paulo: Hucitec Editora Revan/Editora UFRJ

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TANZI,V.1994."Corruption, Governmental Activities, and Markets", IMF Working Paper 99-EA: 1-23 ______.1995."Corruption: arm’s length relationships and markets", in G.Fiorentini, S.Peltzman (eds.) The Economics of Organised Crime,Cambridge,Cambridge University Press,p.161-180 ______.1998."Corruption Around the World: Causes, Consequences, Scope, and Cures", IMF Working Paper 63-EA,:1-39

THE WHITE HOUSE.1991.National Drug Control Strategy Report 1991

FORMER

171 Chapter 7 - Bibliography Chapter 8 Moreover, increasingly frequent recourse to foreign loans for the CRIMINAL purpose of financing public debt (supposedly to reduce the risk PROSPERITIES, of inflation) aggravated the risk of currency crises and default on FINANCIAL CRISIS loans in Mexico,Russia and Turkey. AND MONEY LAUNDERING: The second assumption is that the legal and institutional infrastructure that enabled free financial flows between North THE CASE OF MEXICO American, Europe and Japan were of secondary importance.In IN A COMPARATIVE the post-Cold-War euphoria, decision-makers accepted uncrit- PERSPECTIVE ically the idea of a self-regulating market.They underestimated Guilhem Fabre the importance of legal standards that were instrumental to the development of the capitalist economy over the last two centuries as well as the significant burden imposed by the lack of such institutions in transitional economies.The co-existence of Numerous recent scandals are once again demonstrating the free international capital flows and national institutional and link between financial crises and money laundering at a time regulatory systems created a void in which transnational eco- when the International Monetary Fund estimates that illicit funds nomic and financial delinquency flourished(4). Transitional amount to between US$590 billion and US$1.5 trillion,or one to economies privatised state-owned firms without allowing mar- five per cent of the world’s GDP(1). Examples of recent boondog- ket competition or creating necessary institutional and legal in- gles include international financial aid,the Central Bank of Russia, frastructure for effective markets.Tax evasion accounts for the offshore companies, the Bank of New York, and the Indonesian most important share of crime; however, other problems in- government. clude capital flight in countries where exchange controls are inadequate, counterfeiting (which represents, according to the The incredulity of those who act as if they are just discover- OECD, 6% of world commerce), insurance fraud, and contra- ing the corruption in emerging countries brings irresistibly to band.Thus,corruption grows with new opportunities in North- mind the police officer in Casablanca who is shocked to find South exchange,and in the legal void of countries in transition, gambling in a casino.Instead of condemning such open secrets, which, while instituting privatisation policies, accept the mar- public officials need to investigate how illicit profits are recycled ket economy’s idea of profit but not the complementary idea into the legal economy and the consequences of this dynamic. of market competition.

The post-Cold War financial system rests on two assumptions The sizeable development of the "gray economy" in the con- that cancel each other out.The first is that free capital flows opti- text of finance-driven globalisation favored the spectacular ex- mise the allocation of global resources just as international trade pansion of offshore markets and tax havens through which does.This assumption is both theoretically and empirically dubi- nearly half of the world money supply is currently funneled. In ous(2).If the increase in foreign investment has contributed to eco- 1979, there existed only 75 offshore funds.Today, they number (1) Cf.Financial Times, 9/24/99. (2) Cf.The Capital Myth, Foreign Affairs, May 1998. nomic development in the South,the much larger bank loans and more than 3,000.These havens institutionalise tax evasion,espe- (3) Cf. Alejandro Lopez-Mejia, Large Capital Flows: A other short-term financial flows (except in China, which focuses cially by the world’s great fortunes — a third of whose holdings, Survey of the Causes, Consequences, and Policy on foreign direct investment and relies marginally on short-term estimated at US$5.5 trillion (or 18% of the world’s GDP) are Responses, IMF Working Paper, 1999. capital flows)(3) have produced the opposite effect, diverting in- placed in offshore funds. Sheltered from central bank supervi- (4) Cf. Jean de Maillard, Un monde sans loi,La crimi- vestment from the productive sphere to areas of potentially rapid sion,these new extra-territorial spaces are the home of choice for nalité financière en images, Paris: Ed.Stock, 1998. (5) Cf. Barry Eichengreen and Donald Mathieson, capital appreciation,such as highly speculative stock markets and hedge funds, which, according to the IMF, manage some two- (5) Hedge Funds and Financial Market Dynamics,IMF, real estate.This damages the export competitiveness of develop- thirds of their assets from tax havens . Even though all hedge May 1998. ing countries, the supposed basis for repaying foreign loans. funds combined only amount to some US$300 to 400 billion,

NEXT 172 Chapter 8 rather little compared with the US$26 trillion of the major finan- substantial demand for money laundering on international cap- cial institutions (insurance firms, pension funds, banks), hedge ital markets, including the demand for Russian Treasury bonds, funds have privileged access to credit,and this multiplies risks to and was the direct cause of the Russian financial crisis of 1998. the financial system.In the fall of 1998,the last-minute rescue of Long Term Credit Management (LTCM), a Wall Street darling lo- Nor is the Thai crisis, which triggered the Asian crisis of 1997, cated in Connecticut,but officially headquartered in the Cayman a stranger to money laundering.According to a study published Islands,(6) proved to the world that a single institution with assets in 1997 by three researchers at Chulalongkorn University,(8) the of less than US$5 billion could threaten the entire financial sys- equivalent of 8 to 11% of the Thai GDP was controlled,at the on- tem by taking positions in excess of US$200 billion,thanks to the set of the crisis, by organised crime, which derives its profits pri- credit received from major banks and brokerages(7). marily from gambling and prostitution, and secondarily from drug traffic out of Myanmar. Globalisation has been accompanied not only by the growth of the gray economy but that of a black economy as well. Accelerated democratisation of the Thai political system According to the UN,organised and unorganised crime now gen- during the 1990s gave a clear advantage to the provinces rather erates annual sales on the order of 3% of the world’s GDP,about than the Bangkok region. Bangkok was the stronghold of the US$1 trillion, half of which is in drug sales, which have boomed modernist democratic party and generated half the GDP.The over the last decade, stimulated by an abundant supply and di- peripheral regions were under the control of local "godfathers," versification into synthetic narcotics. Other criminal profits are frequently of Sino-Thai origins,who combined certain legal mo- drawn from multi-service activities such as the control of legal nopolies with illegal activities such as gambling, prostitution, and illicit gambling establishments,the arms trade,human smug- drug trafficking, and contraband in wood and precious stones. gling,traffic in body organs,car theft,prostitution and racketeer- When the provinces acquired the decisive role in fragile gov- ing.These profits boost demand for money laundering,which fa- ernment coalitions, political patronage encouraged money vors offshore markets because of their secrecy and immunity laundering, which once again focused on speculative real es- from legal oversight. tate and stock market investments, in a context of insider trading scandals that occurred in the course of privatization. Tax havens and offshore markets are thus becoming the gathering place for the white economy of banks, investors, and fund The inflow of foreign short-term capital, most often tran- managers, the gray economy of tax evasion and corruption, and sited through the Bangkok Offshore Banking Facility, acceler- the profits that organised crime seeks to recycle.The boundaries ated local speculation by limiting investments at the expense between these three domains are nebulous since the illegal activ- of the productive and export sectors.The deterioration of the ity occurs prior to transfer of funds to offshore markets.In addition, external accounts that ensued was aggravated by the rise of it is usually impossible to distinguish between tax evasion and the dollar and the slowdown on the electronics export markets criminal profits because the recycling techniques are identical. in 1996.This precipitated the exchange crisis and the devaluation of the baht. But the pressure created by short-term in- (6) Cf. Robert M. Morgenthau, On the Trail of Global In evading legal regulation,offshore markets are all the more vestments or by the results and figures in the formal economy Capital, The New York Times, 9/11/98. (7) Cf. Franklin R. Edwards, Hedge Funds and the threatening because money laundering plays a significant role does not explain the magnitude of the crisis.The local political Collapse of Long-Term Capital Management,Journal in post-Cold War financial crises in nation states.The experience and financial system also played a part, in that it strongly fa- of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999. in Russia,recounted in abundant detail through a series of scan- vored the laundering of illegal and criminal profits.By the end (8) Cf.Pasuk Phongpaichit, Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, dals, shows links between capital flight, embezzlement, racke- of 1999, two years after the crisis, whereas the Thai GDP had Nualnoi Treerat, Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja: teering, pillaging of assets, corruption and organised crime. contracted by 10% in 1998 alone, and the surplus on the real Thailand’s Illegal Economy and Public Policy, Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 1998. Criminal activity played a major part in creating public debt and estate market was estimated at 300,000 units in the Bangkok (9) (9) Cf.Odile Cornet,Le MOCI (Moniteur du Commerce diverting funds to speculative overseas financial markets. A region,real estate prices did not fall .This stability remains in- International), 3/11/99. predatory,kleptocratic,and,in the end,Mafia-style abuse created comprehensible if one analyses real estate prices according to

FORMER NEXT 173 Chapter 8 traditional market criteria,but the puzzle disappears when one derstood only when one takes account of money laundering factors in the need for money launderers to funnel massive and the activities of organised crime.These socialised the costs amounts of funds into real estate, as well as the delays which and privatized the profits of organised crime,thereby distorting they caused in the reconstruction of the financial sector. the competitive environment.From 1985 to 1995,the Japanese GDP grew by 52% while all financial assets grew by 85%.The dif- The role of money laundering is also observable in devel- ference between these two figures demonstrates the persis- oped economies, as is demonstrated by Japan, the world’s sec- tence of the speculative bubble(11),which centreed in the real es- ond largest economy.The role that the yakuzas played in the tate market, the yakuzas’ sector of choice for their invisible ma- speculative bubble of the 1980s is now known(10).Through their neuvers, which delay market adjustment. control of drug traffic,prostitution,employment in the building sector, and public works, as well as a part of the very lucrative business of pachinkos — those electric billiard games which Crisis and Money Laundering generate one and a half times the turnover of the Japanese au- in Mexico: from "the Tequila Effect" tomobile sector (some 6% of the GDP) — organised crime has to "the Cocaine Effect" invaded the real estate co-operatives (jusen), the leading brokerages and the shareholders’ meetings of certain large com- What happened in Japan, stemming from trade surpluses of panies.Their access to credit enables them to launder their il- the 1980s and provoking an excess liquidity and easy credit,was licit profits in speculative businesses,where they tend to prefer reproduced in a developing economy,namely that of Mexico,on high-risk operations.When the speculative bubble burst at the the basis of an inflow of short-term investment. Like Thailand, beginning of the 1990s, stock and real estate prices dropped, Mexico had experimented with trade liberalisation policies and and bad debts swamped the banks and other financial institu- privatisation in public sector. Just before their respective finan- tions.The former director of the National Police Agency,Raisuke cial crises,Mexico and Thailand had become the main centres of Miyawaki,estimates that 10% of these debts are yakuza-related drug money laundering in the western and eastern hemisphere, and an additional 30% have probable links with organised according to the United States State Department. crime,which would put such non-recoverable debt attributable to gangsters at somewhere between US$75 and 300 billion, Mexico’s Attorney General has estimated that the local cartels’ that is, 6.5% of GDP. profits from drug money recycled into the economy from 1984 to 1994 represented US$30 billion,or 10% of the 1994 GDP(12).Other After having speculated on the upside, the yakuzas then experts, such as Charles Intriago, editor of Money Laundering (10) Cf. Philippe Pons, Misère et crime au Japon du speculated on the downside, trying to buy up real estate assets Alert, estimate that money laundering by Mexican cartels, which 17ème siècle à nos jours, Ed. Gallimard, Bibliothèque des Sciences Humaines, 1999. at fire sale prices and by blocking,through targeted operations, control one-third of the U.S.market in illegal drugs,worth an esti- (13) (11) Cf.Teruhiko Mano,New Moves in the Money and the liquidation of the liabilities of certain firms which resort to mated $US50 billion, could reach US$ 8 billion per year. US offi- Capital Markets,Japan Review of International Affairs, the yakuzas’ illegal services in order to escape their engage- cials estimate that 75% of cocaine and half of marijuana con- n° 4,Winter 1998. ments.This explains why the fall in real prices of real estate, be- sumed in the US come from Mexico,and that local drug cartels en- (12) Cf.Thierry Cretin, Mafias du Monde, PUF,1997, tween 30 to 70% since the beginning of the 1990s, did not co- joy annual profits on the order of US$10 to 30 billion(14).This is a rea- p.11. (13) Cf.Financial Times, 3/25/98, p.6. incide with a corresponding rise in transactions, and thus re- sonable estimate of profits going to organised crime,although the (14) Cf. Andres Oppenheimer, Bordering on Chaos: tarded the reconstruction of the financial sector, the supply of nationality of those profits is subject to debate. Guerilla,Stockbrokers,Politicians and Mexico’s Road to credit,and,in the end,new growth.There are of course other fac- Prosperity, Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.p.164. tors that explain Japan’s economic difficulties; however, the The cocaine and crack markets alone,representing 9 million (15) Cf. Peter Reuter, The Export Demand for Latin "yakuza recession," in the words of Raisuke Miyawaki,should not consumers in the US, as compared to a million heroin addicts American Drugs,North-South Centre,Miami University, March 1995,cited in Francesco Thoumi, Pays andins: be taken lightly. Despite the government’s numerous expan- and 20 million marijuana users, generate retail sales on the or- l’échec des politiques anti-drogue, Problèmes sionist policies,which increased the GDP by several percentage der of US$40 billion per year, according to Peter Reuter, one of d’Amérique Latine,n° 188,July September 1995. points, the exceptional length of the Japanese crisis is fully un- the top experts on such questions(15). The Rand Drug Policy

FORMER NEXT 174 Chapter 8 Research Centre estimates that criminal organisations reap a the North of Mexico,and six metric tons of synthetic heroin each net benefit equivalent to 75% of retail sales of cocaine,or US$30 year(20).The estimates of annual profits from narcotics (US$10 to billion per year(16). If Mexicans provide 75% of the US market, 30 billion) and from money laundering (US$3 to 8 billion) thus and if the Mexican cartels control retail distribution,they could seem reasonable, though the latter figures are more realistic for reap annual profits on the order of US$22.5 billion.The ques- the period of the 1990s.This simple calculation challenges the tion is whether these conditions do obtain.As a close associate generally accepted idea that 90% of drug profits created in of President Ernesto Zedillo rightly observed:"You always speak Andean countries are laundered in the US(21). It would be more of Mexican drug cartels,but what about the U.S.cartels? Do you apt to say "starting from the United States." mean that there exists a 30-billion- dollar market in illegal drugs in the United States and that no Mafia don on your side of the By all indications,as of the 1990s,Mexican criminal organisa- border has taken an interest in it?"(17) tions have moved from the status of service providers to that of principals and launderers.This transition from the artisan stage Beyond this well-taken objection,it is unarguable that Mexico to the industrial stage is reflected in the replacement of Cessnas has found a choice spot as the transporter, supplier and laun- with old Boeing 727s or DC 7s, transporting at times loads of derer in the biggest drug market on the planet.This invisible tran- more than ten metric tons of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, sition, accelerated by the formation of the North American Free before transshipment to the US(22).At the same time,drug money Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and by the reinforcement of anti-laun- laundering attains significant proportions at the macro-eco- dering legislation in the US, has had enduring effects on the nomic level because it mobilises small business, real estate, and economy, society and politics of Mexico. In the 1980s, most on a larger scale, local financial intermediation. Colombian cocaine came through Central America and the Caribbean on board tourist planes, most often Cessnas. Money laundering fosters the formation of a gray market of According to US anti-drug forces, Mexicans took a 10 to 15% foreign exchange and bonds, where agents and brokers charge commission for their various services, such as making available commissions of 10 to 15% for their services(23).Commercial trans- numerous private landing strips in the country, transshipment actions are also used, where more than 70% of Mexico’s foreign and distribution of merchandise in the US(18). trade is with the US.The US profits indirectly from laundering, in that it increases their export opportunities by permitting certain Beginning in the late 1980s, when the Mexico-United States Mexican businessmen to import US goods and services paid for border supplanted Florida as the principal point of entry for with drug profits(24).It is,by definition,difficult to measure the im- drugs going into the US market, the Mexican cartels raised their pact of this situation on foreign trade.At the time of the Mexican commissions to between 40 and 50% of the value of shipments, crisis,laundered money,a yearly US$3 to 8 billion,was compara- or began to pay cash for stocks of Colombian cocaine, for which ble to oil exports (US$6.7 billion). Laundered funds represented they then assured transport and an undetermined portion of dis- 4 to 10% of total Mexican imports (US$80 billion in 1994), and 5 tribution through their own networks in the US.This process is to 15% of imports coming from the US (US$55 billion in 1994). (16) Cf.Marie Christine Dupuis,Stupéfiants,prix,prof- facilitated by the presence of 3 to 4 million illegal Mexican immi- But not all money is laundered through foreign exchange. its:l’économie politique du marché des stupéfiants in- grants in US territory,and the influx of several hundred thousand Nonetheless, drug money clearly facilitates purchase of US con- dustriels, PUF,1996, p.207. (17) Cf.Andres Oppenheimer, op.cit.,p.312. clandestine arrivals per year, half of whom settle in California. sumer goods, such as cars and electronics, manufactured prod- (18) Cf.Francesco Thoumi, op.cit., p.11. ucts that represent 65% of Mexican imports. In a country where (19) Cf.Marie Christine Dupuis, op.cit., p.206 & 218. This strategy of controlling all sectors of activity allows par- domestic savings are traditionally low, such facility of consump- (20) Cf. US News and World Report, 1/29/96 cited in ticipants to capture a significant part of the added value, probation works to the detriment of investment and of the balance of Thierry Cretin,Mafias du Monde,PUF,1997. bly about 50%. Even by this estimate, lower than others,(19) trade.Far from alleviating service on foreign debt,amounting to (21) Cf.Francesco Thoumi, op.cit., p.15. (22) Cf.Andres Oppenheimer, op.cit.,p.164. Mexicans made US$15 billion in annual profits,on the US market US$13 - 15 billion from 1993 to 1995,drug money contributed to (23) Cf.INCSR, US Department of State, 1996. for cocaine alone, to which we must add 4,000 metric tons of an increasing dependence on imports,thus hurting the balance (24) Cf.INCSR, US Department of State, 1996. marijuana, cultivated and exported from the "Emerald Zone" in of trade.

FORMER NEXT 175 Chapter 8 The dynamic of investment is profoundly affected by privati- per capita GDP by 0.1%:the "Mexican miracle" in fact masks stag- sation policies,which have intensified since 1991,and have inte- nation. But international financiers are essentially motivated by grated the banking sector,services and infrastructures.The result the very great difference in interest rates between the North and of privatizing more than 900 businesses in Mexico, worth an es- the South.The lowered interest rates found in the United States timated US$26 billion, brought about an improvement in the since 1990, made the higher ones in Mexico and Latin American state of public finances,but many loopholes were created in the more attractive,and drained financial capital which is largely dis- process: these concern, according to the OECD, the feasibility connected from domestic production and not likely to improve studies favoring privatisation, the insufficient regulatory struc- local competitiveness.From 1989 to 1994,portfolio investments, ture, the confusion between evaluators and operators, the non- reached US$70 billion and represented 72% of the capital flow transparency of financial arrangements, and the excessive in- to Mexico(29). In 1993, the country received US$5 billion from di- volvement of the State as guarantor of the profitability of various rect foreign investment,an amount greater than that received by projects(25). Privatisation goes hand in hand with deregulation. the whole Eastern bloc in transition,and issued the equivalent of After authorizing private operators to construct and manage US$28 billion in securities and Treasury bonds indexed on the US their own ports,in 1991,the government authorised the free cir- dollar,which represents a quarter of the portfolio investments in culation of transport trucks in all the cities, ports and train sta- all Southern countries.The massive flow of these currency funds tions.The number of licensed heavy trucks grew by 62% in two favored appreciation of the peso, the fall of export competitive- years(26). ness and the further increase of the current deficit, which reached 8% of GDP in 1994. As for infrastructure, from 1988 to 1994, 5,800 kilometers of toll road were granted as concessions for a price of US$15 billion, The excess liquidity of the economy facilitated speculative in- which represented 43% of investment needs for the period 1993- vestments in real estate, and an increase in stock values and (25) Cf. Développement régional et politiques struc- 2000.The developers insisted upon making a profit as soon as household consumption, which decreased domestic savings turelles au Mexique, OCDE, 1998, p.110-130. possible on their investment,for fear that they might only obtain from 21% to 11% of GDP between 1989 and 1994. From 1978 to (26) Cf.Paul Stare, Global Habit, 1997, p.56. short-term financing.This desire for rapid returns on long-term 1994, the volume of credit banking in the whole economy in- (27) Cf.OECD, 1998, op.cit.p.123. projects is evident in highway tolls, which are on average five to creased by 107% in actual terms, and consumer credit, for mort- (28) The reduction of the budget deficit is linked,of (30) course,to privatization policies,which have consid- ten times more expensive than in the United States for compa- gages or credit card debt,increased by 742% .The Mexican mid- erably decreased the number of state-run busi- rable distances, and this before the crisis of 1995. Penalised by dle class, principal supporter of the Institutional Revolutionary nesses,from 1,155 in 1982 to 160 in 1993.These sales these high costs,truck drivers prefer free access roads,which de- Party (Spanish acronym: PRI) then in power, was created on the have brought the equivalent of US$26 to 27 billion teriorate rapidly, thus raising the maintenance costs of the basis of 6% growth from 1940 to 1980(31).However,their access to to public coffers.Cf.OECD, 1998, op.cit.p.116. State(27). a US-style consumer society, heralded while President Carlos (29) Cf.Robert Rollinat, Anatomie d’une crise financière: L’Amérique Latine et Salinas held office, stemmed from an illusion created by indebt- le syndrome mexicain, Problèmes d’Amérique Latine, The favorable conditions of these privatisations, in the con- edness: they benefited from the deflation introduced by the n°.21, June 1996. text of the opening of the great North American market under competition of US products and the imported savings intro- (30) Cf.Christophe Cordonnier, NAFTA, in January 1994, and Mexico’s membership in the OECD, duced by international capital,which made credit available in US Mexique: au delà de la reprise, ver le modèle chilien, encouraged the flow of essentially short-term foreign capital to dollars. Problèmes d’Amérique Latine,n°.22,July-September 1996, p.9. these operations through banks and bond markets. The im- (31) Cf. Jorge Castaneda, The Mexican Shock: Its provement of the economy’s "fundamentals," with the decrease Simultaneously, the gap widened between the 40 million Meaning for the U.S.New York:The New Press,1996.p.45. in the budget deficit,(28) and in inflation, which fell from 100% in poor, in a population of 90 million, and the small rich minority, (32) Cf.John Whitehead,Marie-Josée Kravis,Lessons 1988 to 10% in 1994, contributed to this craze for Mexico, as a who were engaged in activities such as constructing landing of the Mexican Peso Crisis, Independent Task Force model of liberal orthodoxy proposed by international sponsors runways on their countryside properties(32).The concentration Council on Foreign Relations,Washington, unpublished,45 pp.Cited in Alma Guillermoprieto,Mexico: to developing countries.However,economic growth has been far of wealth reached new dimensions: thirteen Mexican billion- Murder Without Justice, New York Review of Books, from comparable to the dragons and tigers of East Asia. From aires identified in the greatest fortunes list of Forbes magazine 10/3/96. 1985 to 1995,the real GDP has grown only an annual 2% and the owned 10% of the country’s GDP. After the great North

FORMER NEXT 176 Chapter 8 American market euphoria and the high-risk investments of The privatisation of transport infrastructure,harbors,and par- 1994, the amount of the mature debt owed to non-residents ticularly banks provides further illustration of the dynamic of crim- reached US$60 billion. The economic agents, indebted in US inal investments: the circulation of merchandise was facilitated dollars (due to the high costs of loans in pesos), but paid in pe- with minimum control,while the weakness or the absence of reg- sos,set apart exchange reserves to protect themselves from an ulation on cash deposits in the Mexican financial system, occur- eventual depreciation of the peso which would weigh down ring with the strengthening of US anti-laundering legislation on their debts and their import costs. The authorities defended the other side of the border,reinforced the local recycling of drug against the pegging of the peso to the dollar by drawing from money(35).The penetration of banks and regional exchange agen- their exchange reserves, which slipped from US$28 billion at cies by drug money had caused rumors since the beginning of the the end of 1993 to US$10 billion at the end of 1994.The 15% de- leadership of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari:(36) in 1991,the pri- preciation of the peso,which finally occurred on December 20, vate sector bought out for the sum of US$12 billion,or three times at the initiative of the new president, Zedillo, caused a crisis of their actual value, the eighteen large banks which had been na- confidence among investors, who withdrew their short-term tionalised nine years earlier(37). Businessmen with "unexplainable capital, thereby worsening the collapse of the peso.The stabil- fortunes," a euphemism generally designating fortunes derived isation plan put into place by the IMF,worth US$50 billion, was from drug trafficking, were ready to purchase public banks "at a matched by draconian budgetary conditions and the manage- loss".Such is the case of Carlos Cabal Peniche,who bought up the ment of inflation, measures to be strictly respected. Following Union Bank at two or three times its value, before taking control a contraction of 6.2% in the GDP,and an unemployment rate of of Fresh Del Monte Produce,a large distribution chain of agricul- 7.6% in 1995, 1996 saw a net recovery. GDP increased by 5.1%; tural products.The same Del Monte generously feeds the coffers the budgetary balance was re-established; inflation decreased of the PRI, which has been in power for seventy years(38).This ex- by 52% in 1995 and 27% in 1996; and the rate of unemploy- ample, the subject of a judicial case, is not isolated: most of the ment decreased to 4.1%.Export competitiveness even allowed privatisation linked with drug money has been neither detected a proportion of the contracted debt with the United States and nor questioned(39). the IMF to be reimbursed ahead of schedule. Progressive bank and stock investments have been the prin- Behind this reassuring recovery scenario hid the heavy debts cipal means to economic ascension of drug traffickers,and have of privatisation, a Trojan horse for drug traffickers, along with worked to the detriment of the legal sectors:access to credit and commercial transactions and real estate investments.One of the to international financing allow the institutionalisation of laun- most spectacular cases of privatisation, revealed by the dering, which increases drug profits. The annual recycling of Washington Post,(33) is that of the National Company of Popular US$3-8 billion of drug money represented only 1-3% of GDP in Support (Conasupo) which was almost completely privatised un- 1994,but the accumulation of these money flows,over a decade, der the rule of President Carlos Salinas (1988-94).This company, represented 10-25% of the 1994 GDP.Even if one removes from which controlled a large network of foodstuff distribution stores, the equation that portion of funds destined for consumption, subsidised for poor families,was used by the President’s brother, which went to buying manufactured products from the US, the (33) Cf. Washington Post, 5/11/1997, cited in Le Raul Salinas,and many high-ranking civil servants,to channel co- available proportion for investment has a not insignificant eco- Monde, 5/17/97. caine to the US and recycle drug profits into its bank accounts. nomic impact. The increase in investment opportunities and (34) Cf. Money Laundering Alert, cited in La Dépêche Internationale des Drogues, OGD, Paris, This veritable take-over bid was intended to benefit the Gulf car- credits thus augments the economic and political influence of January 1997, n° 63. tel led by Juan Garcia Abrego, who spent, according to his testi- drug traffickers. As we have seen, numerous irregularities have (35) Cf.INCSR U.S.Department of State, 1996. mony,about US$50 million per month to corrupt the justice sys- accompanied the transfer of public assets.For example, the pri- (36) Cf.Jorge Castaneda, op.cit., p.167. tem,the police,and the anti-drug forces under the leadership of vatization of Telmex,the Mexican telephone monopoly,in co-or- (37) Cf. Alain Musset, Le Mexique, Paris: Ed. Armand Carlos Salinas(34). dination with France Télécom, allowed for a 247% increase in Colin, 1996, p.168. (38) Cf."Lessons of the Mexican Peso Crisis", op.cit. fees. Users so decried this increase that the company had to (39) Cf.Jorge Castaneda,op.cit., p.246. bring it down to 170%.

FORMER NEXT 177 Chapter 8 The case of Telmex,like those of certain banks,and of privati- country into its worst political crisis since the 1920s,and this be- sation,which at first benefited the Public Treasury,raise the same fore the monetary and economic shock of 1995. According to issues.The first concerns the identity of the new owners: "When Jorge Castaneda, one of the most respected analysts of the you sell in haste, you do not truly know who the buyer is", as Mexican political system, it is conceivable that Carlos Salinas’ Jorge Castaneda notes(40).The second concerns what those in po- regime was able to conclude an agreement with drug traffickers litical power granted in exchange for the high prices they ob- as soon as 1988. The most modern elements among the drug tained for public assets:in some cases sharp rate increases,in oth- barons would have been authorised under such an agreement ers support in the medium term,in the new context of NAFTA,for to discreetly carry out their activities on the national territory on monopolies held by the principal Mexican enterprises,which are condition that they avoid all blunders or interference in relations controlled by the 13 largest,wealthiest families.That was the case with the US and that they launder their profits locally.These con- for Don Emilio Azcarraga’s Television group, which reaches 90% ditions would have allowed a decrease in the balance of payment of Mexican viewers,and for Roberto Hernandez’s Banamex bank deficit, as occurred in Colombia in the 1980s.The nomination of group,both of which are protected from foreign competition for an Attorney General and an anti-drug chief who were both well 12 and 15 years, respectively, counting from 1994. The new al- known among traffickers, and the persistent rumors about the liance sealed between official power and business groups under recycling of drug profits in various privatisations,support this hy- the leadership of Carlos Salinas also has its obligations.Each large pothesis. However, the US would have applied further pressure group was invited to contribute sums as high as US$25 million to following any growth in trafficking, beginning a breakdown of the PRI’s 1994 election campaign, which cost the astronomical the tacit agreement.The assassinations of the Cardinal and the sum of US$700 million(41). two principal politicians in the country could thus be interpreted as a warning from the gangsters that the government must stop This sort of national levy works just as well at the regional level its repression. through government intermediaries,as demonstrated in the work of Jean Rivelois(42).The forced contributions of legal entrepreneurs, The end of the traditional methods of conflict resolution and of drug traffickers,feeds the patronage system of the PRI,the among the elites was due to the increasingly invasive presence of financing of the party in power, and the personal enrichment of drug traffickers,who,having joined the ranks of the most efficient the political class and social redistribution programs such as and wealthiest regional businessmen, could manipulate the po- Solidarity and Procampo.In this sense,drug trafficking and money litical and industrial milieux so as to reach their goals. Jorge laundering take place in the institutional area,though one cannot Castaneda goes beyond suggesting an integration of the margins speak, according to Rivelois, of an infiltration of the margins into by the political Centre,declaring,"It is not inconceivable that,at the the political Centre, but rather of an integration or instrumentali- directorship level of drug trafficking,the distinction between politi- sation of the margin by the political Centre.The recycling dynamic cians who have become drug barons and drug barons who have be- was thus able to feed tourist investments in Cancun and in come politicians is a sensitive question"(43).While awaiting the results Acapulco, under the governance of José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, of on-going judicial investigations, these speculations may be as well as the harbor investments in Manzanillo,under the leader- pushed further.It is possible that scores are settled through mur- ship of Miguel de la Madrid, President of the Republic from 1982 ders, and that these crimes, far from being the product of di- to 1988. In this last case, the Sinaloa cartel was implicated, in liai- nosaurs in the PRI conspiring against economic liberalisation — son with that of Guadalajara, one of the two Mexican drug capi- a theory defended by former President Carlos Salinas — are rather tals,with the border city of Tijuana,in Baja California. related to the division of drug spoils at the regional level. (40) Cf.Jorge Castaneda, op.cit., p.185 (41) Cf.Andres Oppenheimer, op.cit. Field observations suggest links between certain hypotheses Other Latin American examples show the extent of the com- Chapter: The Banquet. (42) Cf.Jean Rivelois,Drogues et pouvoirs :du Mexique concerning the three murders of Cardinal Posadas (1993), of the plicity between political and business circles,and drug traffick- au paradis, Ed.L’Harmattan, 1999. 1994 PRI presidential campaign candidate,Colosio,and of the PRI ing. In Colombia, the country where eighty per cent of the (43) Jorge Castaneda, op.cit., p.170 and Chapter 9. General Secretary, Ruiz Massieu, murders which plunged the world’s emerald extraction takes place,Victor Carranza,a major

FORMER NEXT 178 Chapter 8 producer and exporter of emeralds, was arrested and charged Juarez,on the Texas border,and 1,200 of the INCD’s agents were with cocaine trafficking, laundering and homicides. This bil- fired.Yet these political decisions do not greatly reduce the war lionaire, on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s wealthiest, ac- chest of the drug traffickers, the primary source of corruption. tively contributed to the financing of the government in power(44). The Japanese case, moreover, demonstrates what The police, judiciary, small businesses, the general business lengthy legal procedures were required to establish links be- milieu,and higher administrative offices are not the only ones in- tween the business community and the criminal underworld volved, as demonstrates the example of Grupo Financiero since the 1980s. If it was necessary to wait until 1997 to begin Anahuac, a little Mexican bank acquired in 1995 by the Juarez uncovering such hidden links in Mexico, and if judiciary inde- cartel, the première criminal organisation of the country.The in- pendence was a goal of President Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000), vestigation of prosecutor Salvatti has revealed laundering mech- what must we think of Mexican proceedings? The arrest of Raul anisms that used socially well-known people close to political or Salinas, Carlos Salinas’ brother, accused of the murder of José union leaders of the PRI.The Anahuac group thus recruited the Francisco Ruiz Massieu, and the escape of former President son and the nephew of former President of the Republic,Miguel Salinas to Ireland prove the determination of the investigators; de la Madrid, and tried to implicate President Zedillo’s brother, nonetheless, certain signs demonstrate the persistence of the Rodolfo Zedillo, an architect working on a hotel project worth Mexican crisis. US$50 million and situated right in the middle of the financial district of the capital(46). For one,the police have gone beyond simple corruption into an era of great criminality. Half of the 900 known armed gangs As for economic matters, the return of growth may give the in the country are composed of active or retired army forces. It illusion that problems have disappeared. However, it is a little is no longer possible to count the massive number of misap- early to forget that foreign debt is still at US$160 billion, con- propriated stocks of seised drugs,nor the incidents between po- demning the country to an export-led growth policy at the ex- lice officers, who may sometimes serve as bodyguards for traf- pense of domestic demand and of better distribution of domes- fickers. Some officials estimate that half of the Federal Police tic income. But it is also neglecting another issue, just as prob- agents make a profit from drug trafficking,either through bribes lematic for the medium term:the domestic debt related to bank or by stealing a portion of cocaine. At State levels, the even liabilities. We have seen that banks and brokerage companies lower-paid police forces succumb to pressure from the drug channeled 72% of foreign investment to Mexico between 1989 barons to such an extent that many among them are only "crime and 1994, in other words, US$70 billion.In this expansion phase, syndicates in uniform", an expression coined by Andres which corresponds to the period of privatisation,the Mexican fi- Oppenheimer.Such officers resort to extortion and kidnapping nancial system derived considerable profits by exercising inter- in hard times.The current use of parallel police forces in civil uni- mediation margins (the difference between deposit rates and forms,the madrinas,or "godmothers",who take the bleakest as- savings rates) among the highest in the world. Banking became signments, such as assassination of opposition activists, favors a much more lucrative activity than production investments,and the confusion between policemen and thieves, policemen and this favored the installation of large American or Spanish estab- assassins — a confusion of devastating dimensions during the lishments on the local market(47). (44) Cf.La Dépêche Internationale des Drogues,n° 78, economic recession in 1995.The corruption is orchestrated by April 1998, Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues, the hierarchy, the higher ranks of the police and the anti-drug Consumer credit items (automobiles, houses), the mainly fi- Paris. force, all of which make fortunes in the exercise of their func- nancial valorisation of capital, and the development of large (45) Cf.Andres Oppenheimer,op.cit.,Chapter 15:The tions.From 1993 to 1995,ten per cent of the Federal judicial po- tourist, real estate or infrastructure projects conceived for the Police Connection. lice were fired for having links with drug cartels(45). In February very short term,distort the allocation of resources at the expense (46) Cf.Financial Times, 3/25/98. (47) Cf. Robert Rollinat, "Anatomie d’une crise finan- 1997, General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, director of the National of the productive sector, thus increasing imports and creating cière", cited in Problèmes d’Amérique Latine April- Institute for the Fight against Drug Trafficking (Mexican overcapacity with regard to domestic demand.The 1995 crisis June 1996, p.108. acronym, INCD) was arrested for collusion with the cartel of brutally changed the situation: the reduction or the withdrawal

FORMER NEXT 179 Chapter 8 of portfolio capital and the fall of currency doubled the value of credit and the economic recession would have been much more the peso credits converted into dollars, the more advantageous serious than that of 1995, not to mention the consequences for method before the depreciation. The number of insolvent other Latin American countries and the emerging markets(49).In debtors,both households and enterprises,increased,while over- fact, the responsibility of the local financial intermediaries ap- capacity in real estate and tourism worsened because of the re- pears to have been just as decisive: domestic savings, like im- cession.To prevent the collapse of the financial system,the State ported savings, had been affected by short-term speculative had to help the rescheduling of household and enterprise debt projects, including some in the area of infrastructure, and these and to buy back those bank loans on the verge of foreclosure in risks were thereafter taken over by public leaders. exchange for re-capitalisation by their stockbrokers or by investors.The entire rescue measure cost US$ 65 billion,equivalent Apart from this co-responsibility, which does not excuse the to three-fourths of total bank loans in 1998,and 14.5% of the GDP "Sorcerer’s Apprentice" behavior of the United States, we must of 1997(48). analyse the impact of recycling criminal capital on the financial system and the allocation of resources.The proliferation of political- If this aid,spread over a period of a dozen years,is less painful, financial scandals under the leadership of Ernesto Zedillo,and the it still comes under the logic of collectivising losses as in the impunity enjoyed by those responsible, are just as much symp- Japanese case.Nevertheless,there is a difference of size:all of the tomatic of the mysterious links that were made, or rather rein- privatisations brought US$ 26 billion to the Mexican State, US$ forced, between governmental power, finance, and drug trade in 12 billion of which were solely for the banks,thus allowing a sta- the Salinas era. Jorge Lankenau, former president of the Banca bilisation of public finances. Today public leaders have to dis- Confia and one of the most important businessmen in Monterrey, burse a figure nearly three times higher,passing on to taxpayers in the State of Nuevo Leon, is the third banker to escape arrest the costs of covering the risky operations of privatised groups since the crisis of 1994, after having been sentenced to three and of importing consumer credit for the middle and upper months’house arrest,in his US$20 million home.The irregular op- classes.The excesses of the banking sector and the crisis which erations of the Banca Confia, which has been recapitalised by the followed it ended not only in collectivising these losses but also State for US$1 billion, concern suspect transactions with a stock- in privatising the potential benefits; after the crisis, bank privati- broker subsidiary and offshore companies, an aggressive market sation meant a loss of US$ 53 billion for State accounts (US$ 65 strategy and certain real estate investments(50). billion in bad debts which the government took over,less US$ 12 billion in bank asset transfers). The Mexican bankers then in- Without pre-judging the results of this investigation, nor vented a new formula,that of a subsidised privatisation,which al- those of other financial affairs we have discussed,all the ingredi- lows the State to give its assets by paying the new owners an ents of money laundering can be seen here:offshore companies, amount equivalent to ten per cent of the GDP. high-risk real estate investment and unfair competition.This last point emphasises the contagious effects of recycling on the fi- The contribution of different operators to the exorbitant cost nancial system. If we can reasonably estimate that about one- of the financial crisis remains to be explained.The portfolio in- quarter of the funds laundered annually (in other words, some- vestments, essentially from the US, were attracted by high in- where between US$ 750 million and US$ 2 billion) were placed terest rates allowing a quick return on capital, and then within Mexican banking over ten years,we arrive,independent of the drawn because of the deepening political crisis and the devalu- interest rates in force, at sums on the order of US$ 7.5 to 20 bil- ation of the peso, which threatened the return on investments. lion,which represent from 8 to 22% of the amount of bank cred- The IMF and the United States’ rescue plan (US$50 billion) al- its at the end of 1997. Most of the time, these funds are invested (48) Cf.Financial Times, 11/5/97. lowed investment risks to be transferred to all Mexican taxpay- in regional or new establishments, whose activities are less easy (49)This viewpoint is developed by Michel Aglietta, "Défaillance des marchés et risques systémiques", ers, but its absence would have been even more damaging, to trace than those of larger groups. Revue d’économie financière, summer 1996. causing successive bank failures as these establishments be- (50) Cf.Financial Times, 10/27/97 and 6/30/98. came incapable of paying off their foreign debt.The scarcity of

FORMER NEXT 180 Chapter 8 Certain economists investigate the origin of the banking cri- "Privatisation and permissive supervision transformed Mexico into a sis in Latin America without explaining drug money and envis- money laundering paradise." For the president of the Mexican Bank age the crisis as "one rotten apple spoiling the barrel"(51).However, Association, Operation Casablanca did not prove that the finan- in the new environment of financial deregulation, the compe- cial system has been penetrated by drug trafficking for the reason tition that the banks experienced in paying interest on savings that no Mexican bank recycled more than US$20 million.We have may have disadvantaged the most competititve enterprises. A already disproved this argument(52). "bad" bank proceeding with risky investments at a higher rate offers a better return on deposits than a "good" bank.The for- The money laundering dimension thus allows us to realise mer,by virtue of its more aggressive stance,will win from other the shortcomings of local financial intermediation, which has establishments some clientele who are reassured by the exis- played an important role in the Mexican crisis.At this stage of our tence of insurance on its deposits,and will eventually intervene analysis,the error would be to overestimate the impact of money in the inter-bank market. The "good" banks then find them- laundering by making it the determining factor of the financial selves faced with a dilemma:they either see the volume of their imbalance: in theory, the Mexican crises could have arisen in its activity decrease or they adopt a risky loan strategy, which al- absence.The liberalisation of trade and the volatility of portfolio lows them to offer higher interest rates on savings as do their investments are by nature exogenous data, independent of re- competitors.Whatever the choice made, the result is the same: cycling; local speculative tendencies pre-existed the economic the bank portfolios which adopt a high-risk loan policy will influence of the drug trade.Nevertheless,in practice,strong links grow,to the detriment of more conservative banks,and the en- were developed between these phenomena and the expansion tire financial system will then be more fragile.The recycling of of drug trafficking,to such an extent that a quasi-symbiotic rela- drug profits in the bank sector, initially involving relatively lim- tionship seems to have been created between the legal and ille- ited funds, may thus increase with the accumulation of black gal spheres. By voluntarily limiting our analysis to drug traffick- money flows,and subsequently weaken the entire financial sys- ing,we have put aside all other lucrative activities,such as illegal tem through unfair competition. immigration to the US,which involves hundreds of thousands of people each year.Nonetheless,the money laundering dimension Operation Casablanca, which mobilized 200 United States of financial crises seems to have been underestimated and de- customs agents and the FBI, strongly supports this hypothesis. serves to be examined further in other field studies.Its impact re- Following a three-year investigation,the longest on money laun- mains significant, even if we look at only a minimum of data. In dering in the history of the US, its services arrested in May 1998 the economic domain, laundering has essentially increased im- — in San Diego, California and Las Vegas, Nevada — 25 high- ports of US consumer goods, and by penetrating the bank sec- ranking Mexican executives from 12 of the 19 principal banks in tor, it has greatly contributed — through unfair competition — Mexico.Most of the accused worked in two drug capitals:Tijuana, to the allocation of resources to unproductive sectors and net im- on the border with the US, and the region of Guadalajara.Three porting. banks were directly implicated in the cartels’money laundering, which involved a total of 112 suspects:Bancomer,the pre-eminent What has been called "the tequila effect" to designate this ar- Mexican banking establishment; Serfin, the third largest; and tificial prosperity, constructed on indebtedness and imports Banco Confia,whose former director,Jorge Lankenau,we have al- without a significant increase in economic competitiveness, is ready discussed. Other groups, such as Banacci, the second bank thus inextricably linked to the "cocaine effect".This devastating of Mexico, Banamex, and the subsidiaries of two Spanish compa- cocktail not only provoked the crisis of 1994-95, but also nies, Santader and Bilbao-Vizcaya, have also been mentioned launched the implosion of the PRI, the great breakdown of the (51) Cf.Michael Gavin and Ricardo Haussman,Inter- without being accused.The opposition deputies asked for the res- police and of justice, not to mention the development of gang- American Development Bank, Les origines des crises bancaire: le contexte macro-économique, Problèmes ignation of the governor of the Central Bank, Guillermo Ortiz, for sterism. d’Amérique Latine, April-June 1996, p.141. his role in the privatisation of the banking system, in 1991-92. As (52) Cf.Financial Times, 5/20/98; Le Monde, 5/22/98. Doloris Padierna declared before the National Assembly,

FORMER NEXT 181 Chapter 8 Conclusion

The cases of Russia,Japan,Thailand and Mexico do not imply that there exists an automatic relationship between financial crises and money laundering. But other examples of financial crises, such as those of Argentina, Turkey and Nigeria in 2000- 2001, could be profitably analysed from the same perspective. The accumulation of such crises and their very probable links with money laundering demonstrate the strength of criminal prosperity,still marginal compared to the dimensions of the formal economy,but quite influential politically.Yet political will and political means must overtake this two-speed system,where the methods of supervision and the rules of the game are at least a decade behind the rapidity of financial flows and the existing capacities for circumvention.Without change,the Mafioso drift we have observed here and there may proliferate, protected by the fear it inspires and the silence it maintains.

FORMER

182 Chapter 8 Introduction Several anthropological studies have clearly demonstrated CULTURE AND DRUGS that cannabis use and its effects vary according to cultural circumstances. It is well known that the mood, expectations and K.S.Nair personalities of drug users affect their reaction to psychoactive and Gabriel Britto drugs as much as the chemicals in the drug themselves. Social and psychological behaviour of drug users is as much the product of expectations of socio-cultural institutions as the drug use itself. The implication of such studies is that all drug use behaviour is not necessarily deviant, but may in fact be culturally sanctioned patterns for coping with stress and tensions or means to achieve culturally directed spiritual goals (see Charles, Nair et al., 1999). Blum R.H. (1969) has described the traditional use of drugs, norms of consumption, group cohesion and rituals associated with drug use in various traditional cultures including cer- The relation between psychoactive drugs and culture has tain hunting and gathering cultures. long been recognised in anthropology and other social sciences. This section presents three chapters of varied foci containing Cross-cultural studies of drug use have indicated marked dif- many valuable insights that constitute a strong argument for the ference in the marijuana complex in Jamaica and the marijuana globalising world to launch a research programme on drugs and complex in the United States (Rubin Vera and Lambrog Comitas, culture.The chapter by Alba Zaluar on Rio de Janeiro (hence forth 1975). The Jamaicans believe that the use of marijuana helps referred to as the Rio Chapter) uses primary data; Luis Astorga's them to work better while the middle class Americans smoke analysis on Mexican traffickers (the Mexican chapter) is based on marijuana to "turn on".Clearly,the belief that marijuana deprives several decades of archival data and the chapter Molly Charles et people of ambition and drive may not be there in other cultures al.(the Indian chapter) uses primary and secondary data. as is the case in the USA.Often,the view that a user is a criminally inclined deviant may not be true in many societies. In India, Since culture denotes the total complex of the behaviour of cannabis or opium is part of a certain cultural ritual that cement people,the association of drugs with people belonging to differ- established social relations of hierarchy (See Masihi, 1996; Rao, ent cultures is likely to be different.It is important for policy mak- 1996;Siddiqui,1996;Charles et al. 1999).It is necessary to identify ers and drug control agencies to understand the relationship be- the constellation of constraints and incentives that surround the tween culture and drugs. A section of the Indian chapter is de- choice of drugs or use/abuse of psychoactive drugs. Cross cul- voted to an elaborate portrayal of the thousands of cultures that tural analysis of drug use/abuse can distinguish certain facts and go to make the political map of contemporary India.The Mexican fictions on which drug policies are based leading to more effec- chapter lucidly depicts the cultural variations in the social con- tive policies, which are culture specific rather than universal/in- struction of the identity of the drug traffickers between produc- ternational.The Shamans of Kuikuru of South America put them- ing zones and urban areas and between the portrayals in the USA selves in trances with the aid of drugs.Sadhus of Hindu India take and in the Mexican popular oral history tradition Corridos. This drugs to aid them in meditation and hallucinatory vision. chapter helps us to understand the process of globalisation at the Religious use and drugs as a means for visionary experience in- level of cultural idioms.The Rio chapter brings out the distinctions duced by self-inflicted torture,fasting or hallucinogenic drugs is of the level of violence associated with drug use/traffic between a common feature of many Asiatic cultures (Charles, Nair et al. the prosperous Copacabana area and the Favelas in other parts of 1999 for details). In this aspect the Indian chapter is an addition Rio de Janeiro. to the previous works and it takes on two major issues: the

NEXT 1 Introduction medicinal and the magical-religious association of opium and The Mexican chapter is a valuable contribution to the body of cannabis in the Indian context and indeed in the South Asian knowledge in anthropology on drug use and also offers a rich context.The Chinese scholars may have a lot to contribute to this source of information on the systemic perspective of drug traf- segment of thought. fickers and on the marginalised segments of society. The Rio Chapter elaborates on the implication of migration, unemploy- Everyone recognises the drug trade as a lucrative business and ment and integration of drug peddling in the informal economy a successful dealer could become a rich man.The Rio chapter and in the context of criminalisation of drugs.The Indian chapter is a the Indian chapter discuss the process of entry into the criminal clear statement of the critical role that culture plays in behaviour world.The Rio chapter starts from the premise that Poverty is si- and explains why efforts to introduce global norms for con- multaneously a consequence and cause of social exclusion.Both sumption are bound to fail. It also raises some questions on the chapters assume that accelerated urbanisation,which places the manner in which these norms are being imposed by various rich alongside millions of poor people in big cities like Rio and agencies and the cultural insensitivity that is engenders.In an era Bombay, creates a revolution of rising expectations.Such a situa- when India can make the atomic bomb, has into a major role in tion tends to attract the dispossessed to enter into illicit busi- genetic engineering, and while space research and such scien- nesses. But partners in illicit businesses come from all social tific advances dominate intellectual debate, appeals for permit- classes.While relative deprivation or coercion/threat may help ex- ting traditional healers to use opium with cattle before castrat- plain why the middle classes and professionals (chartered ac- ing them may sound anachronistic.It is a question of culture. countants,bankers,lawyers…) may enter the criminal world,little explanation is available in these two chapters on why millionaires The Indian chapter argues for the decriminalisation of drug enter the CW except in those cases where it is hereditary. use and promotes the use of cannabis and opium for maintenance showing that it is more efficient and sustainable than The "macho" qualities recognised by certain cultures for de- methadone or buprenorphine maintenance. Since these chap- fending one’s family are the same that are required for being a suc- ters are so rich and varied coming from two different continents, cessful drug trader. In urban ghettos of Hispanic families in New the reader will find his/her own meanings and ideas that may in- York City, Shraff (1980) found that mothers value sons for their spire further research. Systematic cross-cultural studies of psy- streetwise qualities,especially the use of knives or guns,which are choactive drug use would help in our understanding of cul- required to protect them from external harm. Drug traffickers of tural/social responses and interpretations of customary practices South American Origin carry with them culturally prescribed pat- while offering a critical assessment of centrally controlled inter- terns of behaviour with its symbolic structure on the international vention strategies and drug policies. scene.The Indian chapter presents the emergence of a way of life on the margins of society as heroin addicts become more and more impoverished.At one level,both the Indian and the Rio chapters are talking of a quasi sub-culture,although the Indian scenario is extremely benign since little violence people against person and property is found to be associated with drug use. The Mexican Chapter makes reference to numerous corridos that show how the symbolic construction of the identity of traffickers is embedded in local idioms and symbols. These varied from region to region within Mexico and it was only in the seventh decade of trafficking that the North American terminology began to penetrate the folk- lore and popular songs.

FORMER NEXT 2 Introduction Bibliography References

BLUM R.H.1969 (ed.) Society and Drugs, California: Jossey and Bass.

CHARLES M., NAIR K.S., BRITTO G., 1999.Culture and Drugs in India. New Delhi: Rawat Publications.

MASIHI E.J.,1996.Culture and Opium Use in Gujarat.Bombay:NARC.

RAO Joga, 1996.Culture and Drug Use in Karnataka.Bombay: NARC.

SHARAFF, J., 1980, "Life on Do Little Street", Department of Anthropology, Hispanic Study Report N° 9, Columbia University.

SIDDIQUI H.Y.,1996.Culture and Drug use in India.Bombay: NARC.

VERA R.and LAMBROG C., 1975.Ganja in Jamaica: A Medical Anthropological study of Chronic Marijuana Use.The Hague: Mouton Publishers.

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3 Introduction - Bibliography Chapter 1 ideas and perceptions that shape individual world views and CULTURE life styles. Both types of reality form the basis for individual and AND THE DRUG group action and inaction, including drug use and abstinence. SCENE IN INDIA Using this analytical framework, this chapter attempts to Molly Charles identify the central factors that have shaped, and over time and Gabriel Britto transformed, the Indian people’s complex set of relationships with mind-altering substances (MAS). We analyse several policies aimed at gaining control over drugs and drug use from the pre-colonial era to the present, with a special focus on the impact of imposing international norms via national drug laws. We point out that a single unwritten policy being pursued in this field has had a devastating impact on one aspect of culture, the medical use of these substances. Criminalising the use of traditional drugs has thrown up undesirable results.

Concerning the demand for drugs, we argue that the imposition of international norms has affected an important aspect of the subjective reality informing drug use in India by facilitating the development and spread of "secular" drug use; that is, drug use cut off from traditional cultural moorings. Traditional use mostly occurred in relaxed group settings; secular users today generally are not relaxed and without the benefits of the group Introduction setting. In our view, culture and tradition were and are effective forms of drug control, providing boundaries, offering a range of Context acceptable motivations for some drug use, and establishing fair- The main thrust of the UNESCO-MOST programme is to ly precise rules and norms on how drugs should be used. This examine India’s socio-economic transformations and their link- framework, by and large, can prevent drug abuse and its associ- ages to the country’s drug problem. We examined(1) some pro- ated negative consequences to both individuals and groups. cesses that created the massive illegal economy and large number of organised crime groups, while eroding systems of gover- Likewise, supplying of drugs formerly occurred openly, legit- nance. This chapter uses both secondary and primary data to imised and bounded by cultural norms and traditional span the cultural canvas in the context of drug use. demands. It did not require criminal gangs or underground infrastructure, and thus did not have today’s infamous conse- Human behaviour is linked with the surrounding social, cul- quences of strengthening organised crime and spreading cor- tural and environmental reality. According to Mulder(2), human ruption and violence.The national ban was imposed on all drug behaviour is moulded by objective and subjective realities and use and supply to conform to the global model developed by their interplay. Objective reality includes power relationships, the West, especially the United States. Officially, this model aims (1) See Charles et al.,2001.Bombay underworld:a de- notably those related to production processes and the material at global suppression (through penal measures) of the use and scriptive account, Paris: UNESCO. (2) Mulder, 1979, Everyday Life in Thailand — An in- (natural) environment, which influence the values and outlooks supply of some substances,regardless of their significance with- terpretation.Bangkok: Reuen Kaaw Press. of individuals and groups. Subjective reality consists of values, in specific cultures.

NEXT 4 Chapter 1 Far from suppressing drug use and supply in India, this Factors that help sustain our traditions and protect our cul- approach is merely changing supply and use patterns in detri- tures from homogenisation include barriers to communication mental ways: such as most people’s limited geographic mobility, the diversity . secular use displaces culturally sanctioned use; of languages and the caste system. Social ties of kinship and . alcohol, heroin and pharmaceuticals displace tradition caste are limited to relatively small geographical areas. Though al drugs; significant population movements have occurred (typically . criminal networks displace traditional suppliers; and from tribal and drought-prone areas to places with greater eco- . hypodermic injection displaces eating, drinking and nomic opportunities), local traditions tend to survive even smoking drugs, helping transmit deadly diseases such when transposed to new settings, as in migration to urban as hepatitis B and HIV. areas. Indeed, migrants from a given area typically gather in a specific urban district and there perpetuate their traditions.

Cultural Diversity Indian culture can be traced back to the Indus Valley (3250 BC to 2000 BC)(3) with subsequent influences of the Vedic cul- India’s diverse cultural reality is very much in evidence, with ture (1500 BC), Buddhism and Jainism (600 BC and 200 BC), 18 regional languages and 1,652 mother tongues. Racially, Islam, Adavita, Bhakti and Rajput cultures. Recent major influ- Mediterraneans (or Dravidians), Mongoloids, Western ences include colonisation, post-colonial government build- Brachycephals, Nordic-Aryans, Negroid, Proto-australoids (or ing, industrialisation and globalisation (Husain, 1993)(4).All Austrics) and the intermingling of these peoples have produced these forces have created an extremely complex entity called huge variations in people’s appearances in different parts of the India. country. Hundreds of leaders and reformers in the social, cultural, India is a host to most world religions: Hinduism, linguistic, political and economic arenas have exploited this Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and cultural mosaic for mass mobilisation. This kaleidoscope pro- Islam; we have many animists and totemists, and a small vides countless idioms and metaphors for articulating ideolo- Jewish community. The Hindu majority includes numerous gies tailor-made to suit the leaders of a given people in a sects; the "little traditions" have literally hundreds of thou- given space and time. sands of gods and goddesses, and many families have their own special deities, whose worship is handed down genera- Unlike western democratic nations where each citizen has tion by generation. a number and the law’s arm has a nation-wide reach, India is a "bag of potatoes" with thousands of communities, each of (3) Dravidians claim that they were the original in- Indian Culture defining its own rules of conduct. Also, many Indian commu- habitants of India.Some scholars are inclined to be- The many strands of Indian culture include classical tradi- nities effectively exist in different historical eras: while some lieve that Indus valley civilisation was dravidian civil- tions, emergent national traditions, regional traditions, local enjoy the benefits of twenty-first century technology, many isation.Others contend that Indus valley preceded or traditions, local sub-cultural traditions of sub-groups and the others eke out eighteenth-century existences. Despite India’s was contemporaneous to that of the Dravidians. while many would consider the tribal populations as western tradition.The laws, however, are formulated, enforced effort to remake itself as a modern western state, coercive the indigenous people of India,since there has hardly and adjudicated primarily by westernised bureaucrats and state institutions are not a dominant factor in the behaviour been any fossil findings, it is safer to assume that other ruling elites. The resulting dissonance between the cul- of individuals and communities. Behaviour within communi- negritos,protoaustroloids and numerous other races tures of the ruled and the rulers has implications for gover- ties is largely guided and controlled by their specific socio- migrated to india at different points in time. (4) Husain, A.S. 1993, The National Culture in india. nance that have not been adequately understood. cultural-religious traditions. Delhi: National Book Trust of India.

FORMER NEXT 5 Chapter 1 Strength of Culture Consumption and culture: We have shown that tradition has persisted despite the By and large, culture still controls the consumption onslaught of modernity in some pockets of the country. Here behaviours of youth in Bombay,as indeed everywhere in India. we describe the role of culture in the personal and group con- Indians who occasionally have a beer or eat meat would nei- duct of India’s peoples. ther drink on Saturdays, eat meat on Tuesdays or Saturdays, nor do either for a whole month in a year. Two days per week, Culture still rules the roost, from politics and economics to Hindu women of most castes fast (i.e., eat small portions of social matters, in both positive and negative ways(5).A few very light refreshment). These practices vary from caste to points make this clear: caste, and according to the deities and "moon indicators" involved (some fast on the day of the new moon). Practices (5)The persistence of atrocities on the downtrodden . The makers of our Constitution, recognising the het- also vary according to individual times of birth, with castes in almost all parts of the country;the incessant female foeticide,dowry deaths are a few negative in- erogeneity of our peoples,did not stipulate a uniform civil code. astrologers indicating when to visit and pray to X or Y diety.On dicators of the powerful play of culture despite nu- Muslims, Parsees, Christians and Hindus each have their own such days women keep fasts. Cultural norms kept dominant merous laws,debates and pious homilies.The oppo- laws. castes such as Brahmins from consuming alcohol. When we sition to reservation of Parliamentary seats for . The Constitution of India protected the Scheduled asked why something was done, the answer invariably would women (33%) also stems from cultural considerations. Castes and Scheduled Tribes through a policy of reservation for be: hamare me isai kiya jaatha hai ("That is how it is done among (6) Take the exemple of empowerment of certain jobs and elective posts proportionate to their population (18%). us"). caste groups which are usually called the other back- . Though the central leadership definitely wanted a ward classes (OBCs). The rationalist E.V.R. Periar in strong central government (an impulse manifested at its ugliest More than a million Hindu men (of all castes), as devotees of Tamilnadu was the ideologue of the anti-Brahmin movement,which brought the lower classes into the during the reign of Indira Gandhi), Nehru and his colleagues Lord Aiyappa, whose shrine is in Kerala, abstain from sex, alco- polity and gave them economic opportunities had to reorganise the states along linguistic lines to accommo- hol, non-vegetarian food and abusive vocabulary for an entire through preferential treatment by reservation (31%) date the aspirations of different peoples. month year after year. right from 1972. Similarly, another Southern state, . Even a simple, grassroots-level Marxist or leftist will Karnataka introduced reservations for OBCs in the 1970s (the Havnoor Commission and the tell you that they ‘missed the bus’ because, among other things, Most Muslims observe the month of Ramadan by fasting Venkataswamy commission — 1986 enquired into the they consciously omitted caste from their paradigm. during the entire period. Beer-bar owners can vouch that they matter). Similar processes were led by M. Solanki in . Many of the middle — and lower — caste groups have few customers then, and the barmaids, whose incomes Gujarat and Karpoori Takhur in Bihar. Nationally, the (known as Other Backward Classes, or OBCs) won their rightful come mainly from patrons’ tips, lament that they get hardly any Janata government which came to power after the dismal rout of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her congress place in the polity in the mid-1980s by political mobilization money during Ramadan. Party after the emergency in 1975-76, appointed a based on the cultural core of India — the caste system(6). Commission under a Parliamentarian,B.P.Mandal to Without labouring the point further, suffice it to state examine whether some caste groups have been un- Cultural controls in urban areas: emphatically that attempts to bring about change will not der-represented in the political administrative structures of India. Based on its recommendations, 27% It would be quite wrong to dismiss the power of traditional succeed without adequate support of culture. In this chapter reservation was made for the OBCs. Although some culture as purely rural. Bombay, India’s most cosmopolitan city, we do not debate whether culture is a superstructure; we sim- political parties opposed it;mobilised students against has literally thousands of caste associations, which have added ply treat it as an empirical fact. In the next section, we look at it; and one Prime Minister even preferred to resign modern functions of political mobilisation to their traditional raw cannabis, opium products and their various culturally (Shri.V.P.Singh),almost all political parties today compete with each other to ensure that the OBCs get their ones such as ensuring endogamy. Even if people from different approved uses in India (For a description of ganja, bhang, cha- Quota. states and religions of India live in a single slum,people of each ras (cannabis products), madhak and other opium products (7) Numerous Gujarati caste associations in Bombay, religion and area of origin generally aggregate in specific pock- see end notes). mobilised personnel, material, blood and rushed to ets, have their own leaders, and perform their own rituals to the Kutch region of gujarat to assist their caste peo- (7) ple in the wake of the massive earthquake on 26th their village or clan deities . Many of the various forms of association with MAS that exist in January 2001. India today have roots in the past. Indeed, what we now call "ille-

FORMER NEXT 6 Chapter 1 gal drugs" have been used for religious, medical, social, functional Cannabis has many religious associations in India. Seals dat- and festive reasons. Despite a few instances of excessive use, drug ing from the Indus Valley Period show that the people wor- use per se was generally viewed not as a cause of concern in Indian shipped Shakti, the mother goddess, and some of the seals had society, but as a means to a socially acceptable end (e.g., celebrat- a representation of a god resembling Lord Shiva. The Aryans ing a religious festival or curing illness). sacrificed rice, milk, soma and animals to Nature, which they worshipped. Soma was sacred because its intoxicating juice Psychoactive plants commonly found in India include induced a feeling of exhilaration that was taken for spiritual cannabis (Cannabis sativa), poppy (Papaver somniferum),khat bliss.The influence of these two cultures led to subsequent reli- (Catha edulis Forsh) and datura. A preparation of betel nut and gious associations between soma use and Lord Shiva.Reference other ingredients is widely marketed in India and exported to to the juice of soma is found in the Sama Veda,an ancient hymn. many Middle Eastern countries under brand names such as Over time Lord Shiva became associated with cannabis use in Goa, Mulchand, and Shimla. It allegedly contains a substance India and Nepal. locally known as katechu. One wonders why no one has bothered to check whether katechu is khat (another banned natural Among Hindus, kinship and caste are two basic elements of product) or whether these products are addictive. However, we social organisation. The use or non-use of a particular drug restricted our focus to opium and cannabis products. depends on the individual's membership in a varna and caste.For example,while most Brahmins (the highest varna in the caste system) have been forbidden to consume non-vegetarian food since the Vedic period(9), they can take a cannabis drink called bhang (8) It is important to note that except the five IFCU Cultural Sanctions and Controls (10) sponsored studies in India, none of the other stud- on Drug Use shubab after a fast (Chopra, 1990) . Members of the Kshatriya ies exclusively had a cultural focus: they were over- caste may use alcohol and meat. Ascetics and mendicants often all assessment exercises documenting the ground This section briefly presents the religious, social, recre- ingest or smoke cannabis to overcome hunger and thirst or realitis as of 1986-87. ational and functional uses of opium and cannabis in different increase concentration, but do not use alcohol. Such use or non- (9) Kashmiri Pandits who were Brahmins,eat mutton, chicken and fish;among the Bengalis too,the Brahmins parts of India; the next section deals with medicinal uses of use can also vary with time. For instance, the Kayasthas of North eat fish. these drugs. We present data from 1987-1996 to show that India can use alcoholic beverages and eat meat, but some indi- (10) Ibid. such cultural uses persist and that cultural controls of drugs viduals give up wine and meat with the onset of old age and turn (11) Hasan, K. 1975, Social Aspects of the use of still operate. Since most of the studies we cite were done in to religion to die pure and pious(11). cannabis and Culture.In:Rubin,V.(ed.) Cannabis and Culture.The Hague: Mouton Publishers. state capitals and big cities, westernised policy makers cannot (12)The types of alcohol consumed vary;they may be dismiss them on the basis that the cultures have died, or that While alcohol use can lead to ostracism from the upper castes, home-brewed wines such as daru or sharaab,a coun- cultural control over drug use is an obsolete notion. This lays among the lower castes it can act as a unifying element.The clan try-made liquor called tarra,tari or toddy — the juice the foundation for our final section on alternate approaches looks down upon a Brahmin who drinks alcohol, whereas mem- of the fan palm,date palm and coconut trees,madhu (8) (rice beer), mahua (a sweet flower used as an ingre- to drug control . bers of the low shudra caste use alcohol during marriage parties dient in making whisky and other contemporary al- and biradari panchayats (caste assemblies). The pasi, chamar, coholic beverages) and other denatured spirits. Religious Use dhobi castes offer toddy to guests at feasts.Among them, an indi- (13) Sanskritisation is a process of social mobility Religion plays a major role in shaping the individual’s vidual ostracised by the community is expected, for re-accep- open to the lower castes in the hindu varna system. It is basically used by the lower castes by adopting worldview and existential understanding. Alcohol, cannabis, tance, to pay a cash fine and lay a feast for the members of the the mores of the dominant caste in their nicotine, opium and mushrooms have been used for rites in caste. During such feasts, serving alcohol is important(12). village/habitat and not necessarily that of the many cultures.The association that evolved through the years Brahmins.In that sense,in a Saurashtra village where has been well engrained in people’s minds, and can be For a lower-caste person to raise his or her social status Rajputs are the dominant caste,a harijan would take (13) to opium consumption and conduct dayaro (opium observed even today in rural and tribal areas. requires a process of sanskritisation . For this purpose, some drinking sessions) as it is one of the traits of Rajputs. choose to become bhagats (religious persons), which requires

FORMER NEXT 7 Chapter 1 abstaining from substances including alcohol, meat, onion, and was used in Assam State during semi-religious ceremonies garlic, and from sexual relationships (even with a spouse). The held to avert sickness and natural calamities. bhagat pledges these abstentions to his or her guru (religious preceptor). Note, however, that hemp drugs are not forbidden In Lucknow (northern India), despite the visibly high con- to bhagats. sumption of alcohol by the local people, the use of cannabis drugs is higher. Cannabis is more socially acceptable than alco- The use of ganja, bhang and charas is associated with Hindu hol in most parts of India. religious and social ceremonies.It is believed that the god Shiva was very fond of hemp drugs; these drugs are still offered to Many of these customs still prevail in vast tracts of India. Shiva in temples on the night of Shivaratri, the anniversary of Video and written documentation of a mela (festival) in Shiva’s marriage, as the "food of the god". Bhang is poured on Junaghad district of Gujarat(17), where over 12,000 Naga and Shivalinga, a metaphorical image of male and female genitals, Agori Sadhus and Sadhvis celebrated and demonstrated and people consume cannabis as an expression of happiness.In extraordinary yogic skills, provides resounding evidence of the Nepal and India, even children are allowed to consume bhang persistence of traditional cannabis use. From the Kumbh Mela on Shivratri. Cannabis is also used during the festivals of held on the banks of the Ganges River in the year 2000 also Janmashtami and Holi, the festival of colours(14). came many reports of ascetics who consumed cannabis, medi- tated and did their yogic practices. In addition to festivals, cannabis is consumed in the temples of Lord Shiva, stals (pilgrim shelters) and private houses while Social and functional uses singing bhajans (religious hymns). These rituals are still in use. Opium use was more functional than that of cannabis. These devotional meetings are often associated with the Bhakti During the Mughal period, it was stated that the Emperor occa- cult and may not always be linked to Lord Shiva. During the ses- sionally indulged recreationally in opium and kuknar,a bever- sions, ganja is passed around in a chillum (pipe) among the age prepared from poppy capsules. Most nobles of Akbar and singers and musicians, much like other cultures’rituals of break- Jahangir’s courts drank charburgha, a mixture of hemp, opium, ing bread together. wine and kuknar.

Yogis use cannabis to facilitate meditation and to over- The Rajputs (a warrior caste in Rajasthan) used opium in come heat, cold, hunger and thirst. It is also used to remove important social functions such as marriage, when sealing inhibitions during esoteric tantric rituals that provide freedom important business deals, for longevity and to enhance sexual in certain areas of human behaviour.The general belief among pleasure.Also,camels and horses were given opium before long sadhus (priests) was that these drugs help free the mind from journeys to cope with the desert sun. (14) Fisher, J. 1975, Cannabis in Nepal: An Overview. worldly distractions. This may be why enormous quantities of In: Rubin,V. (ed.) Cannabis and Culture.The Hague: these drugs are consumed at pilgrim sites (such as Kashi, Opium was long used in critical situations such as battle and Mouton Publishers. Mathura, Varanasi and Puri). Among the fakirs (itinerant wrestling. In the 1670s, John Fryer observed that wrestlers who (15) Indian Hemp Drugs Commission. 1894. Report Muslim priests), cannabis has been socially accepted as a took opium-performed feats that would ordinarily have been of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. means to relate to supernatural realms of consciousness.They beyond their strength. Warriors facing do-or-die situations also (16) Mehraj ud Din, 1996. Culture and Drugs in also used opium. Reportedly, others started using the drug took it(18). This practice persisted until fifty years ago among Kashmir,Bombay:NARC (unpublished monograph). through socialising with fakirs(15). Until recently in Kashmir, one army personnel,to help manage daily hardships and in battle.In (17) Charles,Molly,2000.Naga and Aghori Sadhus.(A could observe elderly men sitting in a circle outside some many regions, alcohol has taken over this function. However, video Documentation). (18) Brian, I. 1975, The Forbidden Game: A Social mosques after their prayers smoking opium from a long pipe, even today an opium drink plays an important role in our cul- History of Drugs.London: Hodder and Stoughton passing it around and discussing various issues(16). Cannabis ture. In the desert regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the host

FORMER NEXT 8 Chapter 1 offers his/her guest opium to drink in the cupped palm of the Cultural controls on drug use hand as a mark of respect (see Masihi, 1996 for a detailed a) Age control account of this practice.)(19) Cultural norms restricted the use of MAS to adult males. In Saurashtra(24) opium use was initiated after 20 years of age (52% Opium has been used to kill unwanted newborn baby girls, after age 35, and 27% at 25-35 years). A study in Jodhpur(25) and given to children, mixed with sweets, as a sedative, to help found men initiated into opium use at ages 26-35 years. them sleep or to keep them docile.Women field workers used it Another survey(26) in Jodhpur of 874 opium users from 75 vil- to keep their children out of mischief. In industrial areas such as lages showed 57.2% over 40 years of age and 30.1% aged 31-40 Bombay, Calcutta and parts of Uttar Pradesh, women factory years. workers similarly gave opium to their children(20). b) Gender control In Sri Lanka, opium use began as a habit of Muslims who Gender’s important role in Indian socialisation is seen in arrived with the Dutch,and spread to other communities by the drug use. Machado, T, 1994(27) noted that her study sample had end of nineteenth century. The rich used opium in drink and no female users in the village setting, while in the urban setting food(21). 25% were women.The urban respondents were young, educated people who used drugs recreationally with friends in pubs or (19) Masihi E.J. 1996. Culture and Drug Abuse in Social use of cannabis in college. Saurashtra, Bombay: NARC (unpublished mono- Cannabis was consumed in a drink called thandai during hot graph). summers in central, eastern and north-western India. Besides Addiction among females is almost absent in Varanasi, an (20) Andrew, C.F. 1926, The Opium Evil In India: Britain's Responsibility. London: Student Christian being cool, thandai is nutritious, as it contains almond proteins important Hindu cultural centre. Women could use bhang only Movement. and fats with high caloric value. From March to October, the heat on specified occasions(28).Women in Jodhpur do not participate (21) Jayasuriya, 1978. Narcotics and Drugs in Sri causes heavy perspiration; thandai compensates for the conse- in the opium-drinking sessions. Though opium use is common Lanka: Socio-Legal Dimensions. Colombo: The quent loss of salt. in Jodhpur, local customs prohibit women from using it(29). Associated Educational Publishers.22 Masihi E.J., 1996, Ibid. Analysis of institutional data on 2,249 persons using opium (22) Masihi E. J., 1996, Ibid. The preparation and consumption of kasumba (opium liq- showed that only 0.80% (18 persons) were women, clear sup- (23) Fisher, 1975, Ibid. uid with several other ingredients) is an elaborate ritualised porting this point. Another survey of 874 opium users in 75 vil- (24) Masihi,E,J,& Desai,D.B.1996.Culture and Drug Use ceremony(22). Members of the same family, caste or group of lages showed 97% of the sample to be male and 3% female(30). in Saurashtra. (Sponsored by IFCU, Paris) Mumbai: (31) NARC. friends from the village or neighbourhood gather in the host's Masihi has noted that in Saurashtra too, women are not (25) Ibid. parlour. Preparation involves an hour of close interaction allowed to participate in Dayro sessions. (26) Singh, Bhairon Bati, 1989, An exploratory report among the participants. Members of the Shudra and on Sample Survey to study on Opium Addiction in Scheduled castes have their own parties and do not join the In Puri in Orissa, too, use of cannabis was predominantly a Rural Population of Jodhpur district,in Afeem Mukti, Bulletin N° 13, Jodhpur: Opium De-addiction, thandai parties of the higher castes. Unlike thandai parties, the male phenomenon. Among a sample of 160 only 5% were Treatment,Training and Research Trust. use of ganja in certain instances facilitates interaction females (all bhang users). Several researchers have documented (27) Ibid. between castes, as ordinary men and bhagats smoke togeth- the low rates or absence of female drug users and minimal use (28)Tripathi,Satyendra,1989,An Assessment of Drug er(23). of drugs among females throughout India(32). Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Varnasi and Border Areas (study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare, New Delhi) Varnasi: Centre for At this juncture we must emphasize that cultural norms con- This means that, effectively, nearly 70% of the population Integrated Rural Development, Banaras Hindu trolled, and still control, drug use in more than one way. was protected against drug use (yes, women used opium to University. commit suicide). (29) Srivastava, Ibid. (30) Bhairon Singh Bati,Ibid. (31) Masihi, 1996.ibid

FORMER NEXT 9 Chapter 1 c) Quantity control Links to the supernatural Cultural use of cannabis and opium has been restricted to The culture associates drug use with the transcendental specific occasions(33). Opium drinkers had to conform their reality. Even today we have at least half a million Hindu priests (32) Modi,I,P,1989, An Assessment of Drug Abuse, behaviour to social expectations; any violation of the norms or and priestesses across the country who perform extraordinary Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Ajmer, excessive use was and is construed as deviant behaviour. feats, which can be described as amazing or unbelievable or (Study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare,New Delhi), Machado(34) showed that the locals considered cannabis use as a even frightening, during hours of meditation using cannabis. Department of Sociology, University of Rajasthan. problem only when it affected health or work efficiency or when (Video documentation by Molly Charles is available from us.) Mehraj ud Din. 1989. An Assessment of Drug Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Jammu it was consumed in large quantity and too frequently.As many as and Kashmir (Study sponsored by Ministry of 45% of her key informants described normal use as once a fort- Welfare, New Delhi), Sri Nagar: Administrative Staff night, to once a week (40%) and once a month (15%). Daily con- Damage to Human Heritage College. sumption or more than 2-3 times a week was seen as heavy use. Karna, M, N, 1989,(a), An Assessment of Drug Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Guwahati Consumption of cannabis in that village occurred in a group set- In this section, we describe the medicinal uses of opium and (Study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare,New Delhi) ting, of 6-10 persons at a time, usually on Sundays or holidays, at cannabis in India and Sri Lanka and show that imposing inter- Shillong: Department of Sociology, North Eastern the temple complex or in the fields close by, in the evening after national norms has had a pernicious impact on our heritage. Hill University. work. They smoke around 5-10 gm per head a week (costing India has a vast repertoire of home remedies and folk medical Karna, M, N, 1989,(b), An Assessment of Drug Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Dimapur around Rs. 5-6 — or US$0.12) as the drug is shared and members practices that rely extensively on opium and cannabis. (Study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare,New Delhi) take turns in sponsoring a session.At a session the person inhales Traditional Systems of Medicine (TSM) such as Ayurveda,Siddha, Shillong: Department of Sociology, North Eastern around three or four puffs from the chillum. Locals give a pejora- Unani and Tibbi also use cannabis and opium.While medical use Hill University. tive name to the heavy user to humiliate him.This village of 1,360 of some traditional drugs has shifted to synthetic and derivative Karna, M, N, 1989,(c), An Assessment of Drug Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Imphal households and 6,680 persons had fewer than 20 people con- drugs, the earlier uses in both TSM and home remedies persist (Study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare,New Delhi) suming cannabis on a daily basis. If in a socially accepted setting in most parts of the country. Shillong: Department of Sociology, North Eastern only 0.26% indulged in daily use,we deduce that cultural controls Hill University. work even today.How could we call such a phenomenon a major Several writers have documented the medicinal value of Chhabra, S,K, 1989, An Assessment of Drug Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Amritsar social problem, national problem number one? In Saurashtra, the Cannabis sativa in the treatment of tetanus, hydrophobia, delir- (Study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare,New Delhi) wife of the opium session host holds the opium stock and gives it ium tremors, infantile convulsions, asthma, protracted labour Amritsar: Department of Law, Guru Nanak Dev to the person making the opium drink,providing another control and numerous other ailments(35). University. on the quantities consumed. (33) Shrivastava, R.S,1989, An Assessment of Drug Abuse, Drug Users and Drug Prevention Services in Cannabis has a place in the Ayurvedic Materia Medica and in Jodhpur (study sponsored by Ministry of Welfare, The host invariably is the most powerful, oldest, and most Tibbi medicine. The Indian Pharmacopoeia of 1954 lists two New Delhi) Jodhpur: University of Jodhpur. respected person of a given caste, sub-caste, or clan in a village preparations of cannabis, a liquid extract and a tincture, as offi- (34) Machado,Tanya, 1994, Culture and Drug Abuse or habitat.Thus, drug use occurs within the framework of, and is cially sanctioned. Cannabis served as a hypnotic, analgesic and in Asian Settings Research for Action, Banglore: IFCU and St.John’s Medical College.(35) Herer,J.1991,The subordinate to, a given power structure. antispasmodic agent and in rural areas as a prophylactic and to Emperor Wears No Clothes.USA:Business Alliance for treat dyspepsia, pain, rheumatism, dysentery, diarrhoea, hyste- Commerce in Hemp (Bach)/ Library of Congress. The long ritual of preparing the drug occurs while the host ria, gonorrhoea and cholera. Medical use is always oral. See also Rubin,V. 1975, The Ganja Vision in Jamaica. leads discussions on matters of community interest. Drug taking Cannabis is used in Nepal, in addition to the above ailments, for In: Rubin V. (ed.) Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton Publishers and Chopra, Ibid. is also an occasion for merriment: Masihi (1996) has document- cholera, tetanus, insomnia, cough, digestive problems, lack of (35) Herer, J. 1991, The Emperor Wears No Clothes. ed poems, couplets sung in honour of the host by "Charans" (a appetite, malaria, as an aphrodisiac, to relieve fatigue and strain, USA: Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp caste group of bards) during the opium-drinking sessions in six and for general age-related ailments. (Bach)/ Library of Congress. districts of Gujarat. Rao Joga (1996) has documented the use of See also Rubin,V. 1975, The Ganja Vision in Jamaica. In: Rubin V. (ed.) Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: cannabis during such activities as marriage, birth of a child, and For medical purposes, cannabis is used in combination with Mouton Publishers and Chopra, Ibid. a temple festival in two districts of Karnataka. other herbs or ingredients.For example,the compound used for

FORMER NEXT 10 Chapter 1 diarrhoea and cholera contained cannabis and fifteen other As a household remedy, opium is used for various inflamma- ingredients including dried ginger, black pepper, nut grass, sea tory conditions, haemorrhage, erysipelas, etc. Opium in liquid salt, black salt, opium, and the ashes of a clamshell. Cannabis form is given for conjunctivitis, earache and toothache. For den- used in these preparations was washed seven times with water tal problems such as a hollow tooth, a pellet of opium is kept in a cloth to remove impurities. Despite its medicinal value, inside the cavity. When oral intake was not possible, it is given Ayurvedic practitioners believe that, as with alcohol, over-indul- through the rectum. For instance, suppositories of opium are gence in cannabis could be hazardous(36). used for disorders of the pelvic region. Besides these functions, opium is used to reduce sensitivity during the advanced stages Opium is often mentioned in the materia medica section of of small pox to prevent relapse of malaria fever and to control Sharangadhar Samhita and Bhavaprakash and is used in several diabetes. preparations. Hindu physicians in the fifteenth century used it freely. It was said to cure the "concurrent derangement of three In Sri Lanka too, opium was used as an aphrodisiac from the humours", increase sexual and muscular powers and produce time of the Sinhala Kings. Though other types of use did not stupefaction of the brain. Later, especially during the last two meet with social disapproval, eating raw opium was considered centuries, opium became part of eight Ayurveda preparations: a habit of uncultured lower classes. In Sri Lanka, TSM practition- Karpua rasa, Ahiphenasava, Brihat Gangadhar churna, ers use opium in treating dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera, rheuma- Makandeya churna, Dugdha vati, Grahanikapta rasa (Rasendra tism and diabetes. It is said to be used for malaria and enteric sara sangraha), Akrakaravadi churna (Sarangadhara) and fever, but this does not appear to be the general case. In medici- Sambhunath rasa (Bhaishajya tantra). Nowadays, those with for- nal preparations opium is invariably administered in combina- mal Ayurvedic training in medical colleges use opium rarely, tion with other substances, in the form of pills, powders or elec- mainly for diarrhoea and dysentery,and only at certain stages of tuaries.The portion of opium in ordinary medicinal preparations these conditions.Hindu physicians never made much use of the varies from one in one hundred parts to one in fifty parts.For cer- sedative and pain-relieving properties of opium. However, an tain preparations a large portion of opium is used,but even then empirical study we carried out in two districts of Gujarat found the highest proportion used is one in thirty or twenty.These are village-based traditional medical practitioners (TMPs) using prepared in large quantities and stored for at least six months. It opium and cannabis for several conditions. To this we shall is also administered to young cattle in very small doses. In Sri return subsequently. Lanka, opium and cannabis have been an integral part of TSMs practiced over 2,500 years, helping maintain the people’s health Tibbi physicians had extensive knowledge of opium and during all these years. Ayurveda has survived, though the gov- used it far more often than other types of practitioners. They ernment has neglected it over the past two centuries. Although obtained this knowledge from Arabic medicine, where opium is allopathic (western) medicine was introduced and made popu- described as an anaesthetic and analgesic.They use it for relief of lar in Sri Lanka, its popularity has been restricted partly because pain, drying of catarrh, for coughs, asthma, hiccups, treatment of of a shortage of trained personnel and limited infrastructure. manic delirium and inflammatory conditions of the brain, diar- Until recently, allopathic medicine was viewed as superior to rhoea, dysentery, facial paralysis, epilepsy and similar nervous other forms of health care in many parts of the world. Now, the conditions. They consider opium a temporary stimulant to the movement is towards integrated medicine, where western and brain that gives rise to a sensation of pleasure, physical vigour traditional systems work in close collaboration. and a feeling of warmth. It is also used as an aphrodisiac and in spermatorrhoea. Tibbi preparations containing opium are In 1937, India’s 3,564 registered Ayurvedic practitioners Barshasha, Hub-i-pecheash, Hubi-i-jadwar, Hub-i-siyah, Hub-i- received a total of 215 pounds of opium. Though registered, (36) Ibid. sarfa, Hub-i-haiza, Kurs-i-massallas and Hub-i-mumsik. some of these practitioners found it difficult to obtain opium so,

FORMER NEXT 11 Chapter 1 in 1951, a group of them complained to the Minister of Local Some subsequent modifications for regulating the supply of Government and Health(37). Subsequent events led to the cre- opium for medicinal purposes under The Poisons, Opium and ation of a system for distributing opium to medicinal practi- Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (1964) are worthy of note: tioners, including vedarala (village based TSMPs). This interest- . A registered vedarala would be issued a certificate specifying process brings out two things: ing the quantity of opium that may be supplied to him. . How introduction of western norms can interfere with . Upon cancellation of a vedarala’s registration or alter- national heritage and sovereignty, and reduce the health-care ing of his opium allowance, the Government Agent shall inform access of the poor; and him forthwith, and within 14 days of being informed he shall . How a system can be developed to empower grassroots surrender his outdated certificate of registration. medical practitioners while preventing abuse. . Registered verdaralas shall not supply opium for eating, smoking or any purpose other than the treatment of dis- A Commission set up in 1909 assessed traditional practi- ease. tioners’ requirements for opium and established a system to meet that need properly. It is important to note that they did In Sri Lanka, especially after the 1970s, Ayurveda received not consider giving cannabis to TMPs in Sri Lanka.To determine strong support from the government. The vedaralas are now a benchmark for the amounts of opium required by TMPs, they registered with district hospitals, which provide their opium documented the amounts required by well-known practition- quotas(39). ers and decided that each practitioner would require around eight ounces per year, or up to one pound for extensive prac- From 1994 to 1998,a total of 257.792 kilos of opium was offi- tices(38). cially given to ten Ayurvedic hospitals. Thirty-seven depots or base hospitals were recognized for registering local vedaralas, The Commission further stipulated the following: and authorized to supply opium to the vedaralas according to . Vedaralas (Sri Lankan TMPs) should be registered after the process enunciated by law. Over the five years for which we the Board verifies their credentials. (They opened a process for have data, they received 485.276 kilograms of opium. (See table registering the vedaralas; India has not begun that process.) below.) . There should be uniformity in the maximum number of registered vedaralas allowed for each province or revenue Amount of Opium supplied to Vedaralas, in Kilograms district. No. Of Base Hospitals (depots) 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 . The annual maximum allotment of opium for a vedar- Total 73.470 72.780 104.110 102.837 132.079 ala should be recorded during registration. . The vedarala should be able to obtain opium only Source: Research and Publications Division, National Dangerous Drugs Control from the depot where he is registered. Board, 383, Kotte Road, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka, Hand Book of Drug Abuse . The maximum quantity per year should be eight Information 1994-98,p.28 ounces, except in special cases. . Opium should only be issued in person to the registered vedarala. (37) Ratnapala Nandasena, 1986.Drug and Narcotic . Vedaralas should pay registration fees to cover admin- Dependence in Sri Lanka, Moratuwa: N.Ratnapala istration costs. (38) Jayasuriya, D.C., ibid. . The government agent should have power to cancel a (39) Since independence,Sinhalese political mobilisation has rested on the three pillars of strength- vedarala’s registration, subject to an appeal to the governor. ening Buddhism,Sinhalese language and Ayurveda.

FORMER NEXT 12 Chapter 1 The government also supplied to pharmaceutical compa- In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, we find, in addition nies and registered medical practitioners a total of 2108.523. to allopathic medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani/Tibbi and home- Details are given below: opathic medical systems being practised. Unani/Tibbi have roots Opium supplied to pharmaceutical companies and others in the Islamic world; Siddha emerged from Dravidian roots; Ayurveda from Sanskrit moorings, though some of the best cen- Consumer 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 tres of Ayurveda are in Kerala in Tamil Nadu.The Ayurveda,Siddha Ayur. Drugs. Corp Navinna 424.944 390.440 355.996 141.778 118.600 and Unani/Tibbi systems have long traditions, with huge medical Registered Doctors literatures that have been codified over time. Likewise, China and and drug Products 108.000 130.000 104.000 100.500 234.265 Total 532.944 520.440 459.996 242.278 352.865 Tibet have their own traditional systems of medicine. These are our human heritage and wealth. A unique university for the Source: Research and Publications Division, National Dangerous Drugs Control development, research, training and practice of Ayurveda exists Board, 383, Kotte Road, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka, Hand Book of Drug Abuse in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Several medical colleges offer five-years’ Information 1994-1998,p.28 degree courses in these non-allopathic systems. For a period, some states of India attempted to offer integrated courses giving The above table does not tell whether the quantities given students the best of both the modern and the traditional medical for registered doctors include allotments to vedaralas. systems.The number of those who graduate from this University A few points are worth noting: and other colleges is too small for a country of a billion people. In . Sri Lanka respected its national heritage; any case, most of the graduates prefer to develop practices in . It went through all the legal and technical processes; urban areas, which are more lucrative than rural practices. . It took care to ensure that opium will not go into the wrong hands or be used for non-medical purposes; India’s traditional medical practitioners exist in several "lay- . It maintained and publicised impeccable records. ers". The above-described graduates constitute one layer; this part of the chapter does not deal with them. In the villages The Indian situation across the nation we find the category of traditional healers We have mentioned several times in this chapter that tradi- "TMPs' for the purposes of this chapter". Most have little formal tion persists, and that researchers have documented traditional education, having acquired their medical knowledge from cannabis and opium use in various settings in India(40).We senior practitioners through apprenticeships of five to ten described historical data on medicinal use of opium and years. Based in the villages, they are easily accessible to the vil- cannabis above.We needed to find out whether non-allopathic lagers.Their fees are affordable, and they know the patients’his- medical practitioners in India use opium and cannabis.As a pre- tories well enough to provide continuity in treatment. When a lude to the results of this inquiry, some information is in order problem is beyond their skills, these practitioners are generally on the world of health providers in India. humble enough to refer patients to others or advise them to seek treatment in city hospitals. Medical practitioners in contemporary India The allopathic health system has gained legitimacy in urban These TMPs draw their methods from the repertoires of areas, and numerous medical colleges and research centres Ayurveda, Siddha, or Unani medical systems, from home reme- produce graduates and specialists in various disciplines. Many dies, or from tribal and folk medicinal practices. India has well (40) See also Rao, 1996. Indian doctors are part of the British health system. Allopaths over 500,000 villages, and most have one or more TMPs, or Siddiqui H.Y.1996.Culture and Drug Abuse,Bombay: use several pharmaceutical drugs containing opium and, in something on the order of a million grassroots health providers. NARC (unpublished monograph).Masihi 1996. ibid.Charles M.,Nair K.S.,Britto G.,1999.Drug Culture some places, a few containing cannabis. Sri Lanka too has such practitioners, the vedaralas who base in India, New Delhi: Rawat Publishers. their work on Ayurveda.

FORMER NEXT 13 Chapter 1 TMPs are part of the natural helping networks that meet the b) TMPs in the treatment of animals people’s needs in a country, which, though nominally a welfare We found that TM practice for animals is also a caste occu- state, has hardly any mechanism to provide social services to pation for some in Gujarat: Rabaaris is a caste group who rear the poor. Dais (traditional birth attendants) are some of India’s cattle and sell the milk in the towns. The Barwaad caste rear TMPs, as are bonesetters and many other groups. Let us illus- sheep and goats and live in the jungle in tents (nez) with their trate the role of TMPs in delivering babies: dais have delivered cattle.Zoo personnel use their help on and off.When quizzed on most babies in rural India, and still do. National and internation- how they manage to treat zoo animals when there are veteri- al authorities have accepted their role. UNICEF, in partnership nary doctors officially appointed by the government, they gave with the government of India, launched a major countrywide many unusual answers: project to upgrade dais’ services by providing kits containing supplies such as new blades and cotton swabs to prevent the "The monkey does the tricks; the owner collects the money", transmission of tetanus from rusted scissors. "The prostitute slogs; the madam picks up the money". "We do the work; they collect the fat government salary". However, as in many fields, we also have crooks who have never seen the inside of a medical college putting up name One said that he was treating lions and deer. boards, posing as trained doctors, and attempting to practice "I took ten years to learn from my father how to catch these ani- allopathy and even conduct surgery. A few have been arrested mals,how to treat the claws,and what medicine to give for what ill- and put behind bars. The TMPs under discussion must be distin- ness". guished from these rascals. Unfortunately, a few hundred scam- sters in the cities provide an excuse for the allopathic doctors and c) Tantriks, Fakirs as TMPs medical establishment to dismiss a million or so TMPs as "quacks", The Tantrik (Hindu priestly) tradition is strong in the completely ignoring their healing skills (many routinely treat Saurashtra region. Tantriks (priests) live in the forests, know snake bites,scorpion bites,fractures,and hepatitis).This is a classic many medicinal plants, and walk from village to village. Apart case of the "particularistic fallacy". from performing religious functions and giving devotional ora- tions to their disciples, they treat the sick and each trains one Use of opium and cannabis by TMPs disciple in traditional medicine. They treat snakebites and scor- We set out to obtain data on cannabis and opium use by pion bites almost as a matter of routine. Likewise, the fakirs per- TMPs through interviews. The results confirm our view that tra- form similar functions among Muslims (our sample included dition persists despite the onslaught of modern medicine. one fakir and three tantriks, naga sadhus). (41) This exercise was carried out as part of the UN- Details are given below(41). ESCO-MOST research programme on the drug prob- We elicited data on the following from our respondents: lem in India. Field data collection was done from June to December 2000 with 53 TMPs in Porbundar a) A profile of respondents . The use of cannabis and opium when TMPs prepare and Junagad districts of Gujarat.They treated both Our sample included 17 female and 36 male TMPs;14 had no their medications; humans and animals. Respondents included dais, formal schooling, and 38 had completed five to eight years of . Where they obtain these drugs; bone-setters,healers of hepatitis and other special- studies; more than half were 41-60 years of age; 30 lived and . Difficulties faced by them. isations as well as generalists.The sampling was intended to cover as many characteristics as possible practiced their medicine in small towns; the rest were village- of TMPs in the chosen districts;there is no register in based. As many as 38 of them were following a family tradition the country or these districts elucidating the uni- as healers; some had taken apprenticeship with TMPs such as verse of TMPs.A short version of the report is being sadhus or fakirs. More than half served over six years of appren- published (Charles M., Britto G., Das A.A., Masihi E.J. and Bhaskar Jani Danger to Heritage, Seminar, ticeship.Nearly 75% had practiced traditional medicine (TM) for N° 504, August, 2001). more than ten years.

FORMER NEXT 14 Chapter 1 The following findings merit mention Listed below are the conditions for which the responding TMPs prepare medications containing opium or . Each village or small town had more than one TMP.Thus cannabis: the half million villages of India could easily host a million practitioners of Traditional Systems of Medicine (TSM). Medicinal Uses of Opium and Ganja

. Several respondents specialized in one set of ailments. For instance, TMPs are well known for their skills in treating frac- DISEASE Opium GANJA OP+GANJA tures. If one has a good experience with a particular vaidya, he will eulogize him. When people talk at gatherings such as marriages, Jaundice 6 2 1 good TMPs get word-of-mouth publicity and gain clients from sur- Delivery 4 rounding villages. If the child is in wrong position prior to delivery 2 1 1 . Despite minimal formal educational, all TMPs appren- If the child is not coming out despite labour pain 1 tice for 5-10 years with senior practitioners.This system for hand- First time delivery 4 ing down traditional medical knowledge involves certain rituals. Probably for economic reasons, this knowledge was formerly If the mother is very weak 2 Unbearable pain handed down only to family members, but this pattern of trans- during delivery 1 1 mission seems to be waning. Excessive bleeding during delivery 1 . The TMPs in the study used opium or cannabis in med- If the girl is very young, ications they prepared for an average of 81% of their patients in on the first night 1 the month preceding the interview. Asthma (kada dham) occasional 3 . All of them buy opium or cannabis from the black mar- Chronic asthma 1 ket or tell their patients to bring the materials.Thus, the costs have Paralysis/muscular pain 4 5 gone up for the patients and the medications based on them are Fracture of bones 2 3 reported to be less efficacious due to adulteration,eroding the peo- Hairline crack in bones 1 2 ple’s faith in these TMPs.In the long run this will destroy centuries of Hand/shoulder Slipping traditional wisdom. from joints 3 1 Children crying unable to express complaints 2 Children with stomach-ache 1 Children vomiting 1 Insomnia among children 1 When cough is choking the child (barni) 2 Children with constipation 1 Children with diarrhoea 2 Children who do not digest food 3 Children with cold 3

FORMER NEXT 15 Chapter 1 (42) Given the World Bank-IMF dictates on privati- DISEASE Opium GANJA OP+GANJA sation of health services and the constantly shrink- Breathlessness in dogs (hafri) 1 . Policy makers and administrators should. ing health budgets of municipalities and state gov- Paralysis in dogs (lakwan) 1 . Evolve simple procedures along the lines of the Sri ernments (in Bombay,nearly 90% of the annual mu- Lankan system. nicipal health budget goes for staff salary and main- Dog does not each much 1 tenance),there is little likelihood that in the next two Bloating of the stomach . Publicise these legal provisions to all TSM practitioners decades our people living in half a million villages of the dogs (affri) 3 through Village Councils. will have access to, or affordable, allopathic health Jaundice of dogs (Kamri) 2 . Indian Law, Sri Lankan Law and the UN Single care.TMPs will continue to serve our people. Dogs which go to bite Convention do not prohibit the medical use of these substances(43). We also point out that the international community anyone (hadakwa) 1 . Considering that China, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, should either provide the resources to enlarge the When the horns of the cattle health infrastructure of developing nations to give gets worms or other insects inside, just to mention a few countries that constitute a third of humanity, the entire population access to affordable allopathic one has to cut it off (Kamboi) 2 1 4 have over several millennia evolved a wealth of preventive, primi- medicine,or stop interfering in the practice of med- When insects or worm accumulate tive and curative knowledge in various systems of medicine and under the hoofs of the cattle (Karwa) 7 ical systems that cater to the poor in the name of folk/aboriginal medicinal practices, it is imperative that the narcotics control.One wonders whether pharmaceu- Cow gives less milk 1 tical companies are financing these anti-drug cam- Division of Narcotic Drugs (DND), the International Narcotics Cattle do not eat much 1 paigns at the international level. Control Board (INCB), the United Nations International Drug Besides, the TMPs, fakirs, sadhus, tantriks have an Bloating of the stomach of cattle (affri) 4 1 Control Programme (UNDCP) et al. immediately issue a clarifica- enormous wealth of knowledge that needs to documented before they die.We need to set up an idea Cattle develop cold (Vallo) 4 3 tion to all member States that the definition in all UN narcotics bank and register as many ideas as possible from Cattle bone fracture 3 conventions of the term "medicinal use" includes traditional sys- these TMPs. These ideas can be tested, and if new Cattle bone crack 1 2 tems of medicine. medicines can be developed from them these TMPs . Our national councils for research in Ayurveda, Siddha, should enjoy the fruits of such developments. Slipping of limb from socket among cattle 1 1 1 (43) Legal Provisions of Medicinal Use of Opium and Unani medicines were established to strengthen and promote and Cannabis. Paralysis of cattle 1 their use for the welfare of the masses. To date, none of these The NDPS Act,section 9-A subsection (1) states: Swelling on ankles on account national councils examined the damaging impact of the non- "If the Central Government is of the opinion that,having of slipping 1 implementation of certain provisions of the NDPS Act relating to regard to the use of any controlled substance in the pro- Injury in cattle 2 1 the TMPs in India.The councils’involvement in this issue is essential. duction or manufacture of any narcotic drug or psy- Fertility problem among cattle 1 chotropic substance,it is necessary or expedient so to do . The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the in public interest,it may,by order,provide for regulating Lion (Karva) 1 Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and other relevant national bodies or prohibiting the production,manufacture,supply and Any injury of the lion (including the claws) 1 should declare that TMPs come under the ‘eligible group of persons’ distribution thereof and trade and commerce therein". and undertake a process akin to the one in Sri Lanka. Sub section of the same section reads,"Without preju- When a lion develops any boils 1 dice to generality of the power conferred by subsection . Since under the NDPS Act, owners of cattle or domestic (1),an order made there under may provide for regulat- . None of the interviewed TMPs have registered with any animals are already eligible to obtain opium or cannabis for med- ing by licences, permits or otherwise, the production, authority. Just as India has recognised the dais, created mecha- icating these animals, there is no reason to deny the TMPs their manufacture,possession,transport,import inter-state, export inter-state,sale,purchase,consumption,use stor- nisms to upgrade their skills and ensured the availability of birth quota of pure drugs at controlled rates. age, distribution, disposal or acquisition of any con- attendants across the entire country at minimal government . Official involvement of village councils in identifying trolled substance". cost, we need to recognise TMPs’ roles and provide them with authentic local TMPs will prevent exploitation of this system by Section 10 under subsection (1) says:"Subject to the training and other support. This issue goes far beyond our con- spurious entrants or persons from the underworld. provisions of section 8,the State Government may,by (42) rules — permit and regulate the possession, concerns about narcotics and their proper use . . Since TMPs may be uncomfortable going to the sumption and use of poppy straw,…opium,cannabis, . None of the responding TMPs knew anything about the provi- Collectorates, which are highly guarded formal structures, it may manufacture of medical opium or any preparation sions in the NDPS Act,which enables them to apply to the Collector be useful to follow the Sri Lankan system of registering TMPs at dis- containing any manufactured drugs from materials or his nominee to register and apply for a license to obtain pure trict hospitals. Also, they should be able to pick up their supplies which the maker is lawfully entitled to possess…" Section 8: "No person shall … cultivate the opium opium or cannabis, nor did they have any information on the offi- from the hospitals where they are registered. poppy or any cannabis plant or produce,manufacture, cial forms they had to use for the application. . It is important to note that continuing to deny TMPs their

FORMER NEXT 16 Chapter 1 possess,sell,… except for medical or scientific purposes and in the manner and to the extent provided by the required quota of opium or cannabis pushes them to black mar- made opium a state monopoly.With the decline of the Mughals, provisions of this Act or the rules or orders made there keters, whose goods may be adulterated, harming the efficacy of the State lost its hold on the monopoly. under and in a case where any such provision,imposes their medicines and the people’s faith in TMPs. any requirement by way of licence,permit or authorisation also in accordance with the terms and condi- . Also, if opium and ganja is not provided at controlled Colonisation and Opium tions of such license,permit or authorisation". prices, the increased costs to patients will gradually choke off the The British policy with regard to poppy cultivation in India The Narcotics Drugs Rules, 1985, Rule 16 reads traditional systems of medical practice. was linked to their trade relations with China(44). Since the British 1.Any registered medical practitioner desiring to pos- . It must be noted also that TMPs use almost all parts of had developed a taste for tea, the East India Company was buy- sess opium for use as an ingredient in any medicine and to sell medicines containing opium on pre- the cannabis plant for various purposes: the root is used in some ing and selling fifteen million pounds of China tea per year by scription shall make an application to the collector preparations, the leaves in another, and ganja proper has its uses. 1785.The problem in trade arose because the British had no bal- or authorised officer for a license on that behalf. Thus, the definition needs to be modified. ancing commodity that China wanted to buy. China’s emperor 2.On receipt of an application under sub-rule (1),the . The Government of India organised a seminar at the dismissed British arms as white barbarian toys and scorned their Collector or authorised office shall make such inquiries as he deems necessary and if he is satisfied SAARC level a few years ago on traditional systems of medicine textiles, showing them China’s silk. In the period 1710-1759, that there is no objection to grant the license ap- and opium/cannabis products; the focus was on the application of Britain’s Treasury was sending China 26,833,614 pounds sterling plied for, he may, subject to the orders of the State TPMs for treating addiction. A similar meeting is needed to work in silver and gold, and only 9,248,306 pounds worth of goods. Government and the Commissioner of Prohibition out modalities for supplying medicinal opium and cannabis to The British needed something that the Chinese would buy to and Excise,if any,grant the applicant a license in Form O.P.I on payment of a fee of rupees ten. TMPs. restore the trade balance. Opium became that merchandise. Rule 21 reads An owner of cattle or any domestic animals desiring to The British promoted poppy cultivation in various Indian possess opium for administering it to his cattle,or domes- provinces under their direct control, and went about opium tic animals on medical grounds may make an application The Creation of Modern State for a permit to the collector or the authorised officer… On Structures and Changes trading systematically, controlling its cultivation, consumption, receipt of an application under sub-rule (1) the collec- in the Drug Scene production, sale within India and export(45). tor or the authorised officer …grants the applicant a permit in Form O.P.IV on payment of a fee of rupees ten. We have so far described India’s cultural complexities, which . The first step was to gain control over poppy-grow- Rule 40 reads 1.Any registered medical practitioner desiring to pos- govern the lives of numerous communities, castes, tribes and ing areas, and then to increase the area of cultivation as need- sess ganja for use as an ingredient in any medicine and other homogeneous communities.We have also touched upon ed. For example, the 1757 Battle of Plassey (in Bihar Province, to sell medicines containing ganja on prescription the religious, social, functional and medicinal use of opium and which produced top-quality opium on a large scale), led to the shall make an application to the Collector or autho- cannabis in this vast country. Although it has not been possible Company’s monopoly over "Patna opium". This began in 1773 rised Officer in that behalf. (46) 2.On receipt of an application under sub-rule (1),the to go into much detail,partly because this chapter is only meant when Warren Hastings abolished free trade in it . The area of Collector or an authorised officer … grant the applicant as an introduction,and partly because more research is needed, cultivation reached 51,500 acres (80.47 sq. miles) in 1872-1892, a license in Form B-I,on Payment of fee of rupees ten. we suggest that cultural norms in India are far more efficient and then 145,000 acres (226.56 sq. miles) in 1914-1918. Rule 45 reads means of drug control, and have far fewer negative side-effects, 1.An owner of cattle or any domestic animals desiring to possess ganja for administering it to his cattle or than the legislations inspired by global norms. . The British used many means to block competition in domestic animals on medical grounds may make an the opium trade by the native states. Opium from Telengana, application for a permit to the Collector or autho- Expansion of legal system on drug matters Hyderabad, was around one-third the price of the British opium rised officer in this behalf. Though we had Ashoka and other great emperors who from Malwa and Patna, so the British told the Hyderabad gov- 2. On receipt of an application under sub rule (1), the Collector or authorised officer…grant the applicant a per- brought within their authority vast portions of what is contem- ernment to stop opium production. After that, opium for con- mit in Form B IV,on payment of a fee of rupees ten. porary India, all the communities retained their own norms for sumption in Hyderabad had to be bought elsewhere. (44) The role of opium in the subjugation of China, living. In the context of drug production and use, the relevant ceding of Hong Kong,and the Opium Wars,and the legal and formal institutional framework across the empire . While Malwa was still mostly under the rule of Indian volumes of money made by the British from Chinese and Indian consumers, is too well known to repeat began to arise during the Mogul period when the opium trade princes,before the region came under full British control,opium here except in passing. became important. In the sixteenth century, the Emperor Akbar cultivation was free and extremely profitable. Malwa merchants

FORMER NEXT 17 Chapter 1 Global Norms and the Drug Scene priced their produce lower than the Patna opium controlled by in India the British. In response, the British levied a heavy transit tax on opium passing through British-controlled territory en route to After independence, India’s drug abuse situation changed China. At first, the tax on Malwa opium was collected only at (as did other aspects of life). The Gandhians continued to pro- Indore, but subsequently tax-collecting stations appeared at mote addiction-free life styles; they often wrote on the evils of Ujjain, Jaora and Udaipur. opium and liquor. But the anti-addiction programme was a weak element in the freedom struggle and in the Gandhian . The British also ensured that production of opium was constructive programme. Various religious cults also contribut- controlled. For example, they permitted poppy cultivation in ed toward abstinence in different parts of the country. Hoshiapur Tahsil in Punjab province but prohibited opium manufacture; the produce was sold in the form of poppy heads and Several developments at the international level affected the British sold opium from other places for local consumption. the Indian situation. The effort to create common worldwide (45) The British had made agreements with many laws on drug consumption is worth studying as an experiment kings and princes,letting them continue as rulers in . The British also profited from opium taxes within in human engineering by the US. Many international proto- so-called native states, which thus were rather au- India. The revenue collected from opium rose from 38,837 cols, treaties and conventions were drawn up and India, espe- tonomous enclaves.At the time of independence in 1947, 562 such Princely States existed. pounds sterling in 1773-1774 to 78,300 pounds in 1783-1784. cially after Independence, rushed into sign every one of them. (46) Bengal Regulation VI of 1797 made eastern By 1793, the revenue reached a quarter million pounds. We went about it with an air of moral superiority in the inter- India opium a direct state monopoly. national arena (see End Note for a brief description of the main (47) Opium smuggling was the basis of capital for- Opium Smuggling: Origins protocols). mation in western India.Around 220 business establishments of Parsees, Gujaratis and Marwaris smug- Local cultivators began to see the poppy crop differently, as gled opium from the Malwa region to China by pass- an important cash crop, fetching incomes from three to seven Proliferation of alcohol ing the British in this period.An economic historian, times those of cereals such as wheat, and in exceptionally As a sequel in the post-independence period,the Indian gov- Amar Farooqui, in his seminal work, Smuggling as advantageous weather and soil conditions, profits could be ernment attempted to curb sales of opium and cannabis by Subversion — Colonialism,Indian Merchants and the Politics of Opium (1998) has delved into the details. twelve to twenty times as much. reducing or cancelling retailing licenses,which led to an increase (48) For example, consumption of rice beer, or Despite multiple transit taxes by the British, Malwa opium in alcohol consumption(49). In addition, ever-increasing revenue madhu, was part of the Rengma Nagas culture on merchants found the trade extremely profitable. Hence they needs prompted state governments to promote alcohol sales. the Myanmar border.Its daily use did not affect their began smuggling opium from Malwa via Bombay and Surat to The state of Maharashtra,for instance,adopted policies that con- activity.In fact it was extremely nourishing,so much so that old men used to live almost exclusively on China in partnership with the Dutch as early as 1770. This went tributed to a tenfold increase in alcohol tax revenues from 1978 rice beer with little or no solid food.The Ao Nagas on almost up to 1830(47). to 1996(50). In 2000, the government of Maharashtra raked in also consumed rice beer regularly. Christian mis- US$475 million. The service sector’s contribution to Indian eco- sionaries discouraged drinking the beverage and Cultural change nomic growth in the last five years has been very significant; encouraged the use of unfermented grape juice from America and tea.The neo-Christians began to British policy generally was to avoid interfering in Indian cul- nearly 30% of this growth came from the bar and restaurant seg- identify themselves as those who abstained from tural life. India’s vastness, variety and complexities also deterred ments.It is interesting to note that alcohol companies are financ- rice beer,and it became a hallmark of their new faith. them from tampering with cultural norms, though the rulers ing the present campaign against drugs such as cannabis.Today, In one village (Molugyimen) founded by the mis- and missionaries did change cultural norms in some small pock- alcohol outlets exist in areas that never had much of alcohol sionaries, within a few years there was hardly a house that did not use opium. They mixed opium ets. Tampering with age-old practices invariably raises more abuse. For example, numerous alcohol shops dot the villages of with betel (pan) leaves, dried the mixture over the complicated problems. In the case of some neo-Christian Ao Rajasthan, which was never the case before. Liquor has increas- fire and smoked it in a pipe.Travelers used to keep Nagas, for example, the use of nutritious rice beer gave way to ingly replaced the market for cannabis and opium. an opium ball in their mouth until it dissolved. opium consumption(48). Opium consumption was unknown to the Aos and it had no cultural base in this tribe. The Indian government shut down most of its outlets for (49) Chopra, 1996, Ibid. opium supply for oral consumption by March 31, 1959. An

FORMER NEXT 18 Chapter 1 (50) Britto, 1996, Ibid. In the year 1978-79, only five opium register was opened to enumerate chronic opium Nepal criminalised drug use, the profile of cannabis users star hotels and a few strip tease joints/discotheques addicts and only registered addicts were eligible to purchase, changed.Youngsters began to use it as a novel and pleasurable permitted their patrons to drink alcohol in their possess, or consume opium (see table below).The intent was to experience, imitating a distant culture; middle-class families premises.The country liquor shops were an excep- (51) tion where the poor quenched their thirst with po- close down this system as the addicts died off . were alarmed as their youth turned into hippies. tent but cheap alcohol. By 1983, many of the street corner Irani tea stalls were converted to beer bars Number of Registered Opium Addicts, INDIA The influx of western tourists in the 1960s changed Indian and in many such cases, the ownership changed (1992-1997) drug-use patterns similarly. Cannabis, which had received little hands and these bars were open from six in the evening till eleven o'clock. Soon, to capture the No. Name of State 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 attention from Indian youth,became a sought-after substance in workers on night shifts and the college students 1 Delhi 150 135 123 109 93 certain strata of society. Its use was initially limited to certain (most of the colleges close by 13.00 hrs), these bars 2 Gujarat 45 12 n.a n.a 29 classes and tourist spots.The increased profits were an incentive began functioning from 11.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. to sell more. Subsequently women were employed as 3 Haryana n.a 70 90 90 91 waistresses. Dancers joined these bars and worked 4 Himachal Pradesh 82 64 64 61 60 from 6.00 p.m.to 12.00 p.m.Then emerged "free ser- 5 Jammu & Kashmir 25 25 27 21 21 The move from cultural to secular use vice bars", which have only night lamps inside and A new pattern of "secular" drug use emerged after criminal- 6 Karnataka n.a n.a n.a 2 Nil women,sit with customers offering non-penetrative isation. This may be defined as drug use by individuals, alone, sex for a price.These women would also drink with 7 Kerala 122 n.a 74 n.a 41 without ritual or ceremonial significance. Traditionally, drugs the customers at the latter's cost.Nowadays you find 8 Maharashtra 262 272 321 355 351 several bars mushrooming around lodges,which of- were almost always consumed in group settings, and drug 9 Madhya Pradesh 11 9 8 n.a n.a fer rooms for 'hire by the hour and no-questions preparation and consumption followed specified elaborate rit- 10 Nagaland 33333 asked' basis.Some bars also have rooms attached to uals. For instance, each session had a leader.This set and setting them where women play hosts to customers want- 11 Orissa n.a 2,506 2,506 2,506 1,536 ing to drink and have fun as a private party.Today, controlled the quantity, timing, frequency, and mode of drug 12 Punjab 753 679 586 438 n.a around 160,000 young women work in these bars in consumption. Mumbai. 13 Rajasthan 71 63 59 59 45 The result of these for all to see in the tax income 14 Tamil Nadu 330 300 n.a 289 282 We shall not commit the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy table of the Government of Maharashtra given be- 15 Uttar Pradesh n.a 1 n.a n.a 1 low where we have converted INR to USD at a fixed here, but this secular use began around the time of the NDPS rate of 1USD — 40 INR irrespective the prevailing 16 West Bengal 13,139 12,717 11,465 11,497 8,199 Act. A 1987 study(53) found that most drug users did it in group rates in different years. All India 14,993 16,856 15,326 15,430 10,752 settings most of the time. In the nineties, secular drug use (51) Official statistics show 10,752 opium addicts still became the predominant mode for heroin addicts most of the receiving government quotas of opium in the year SOURCE:The Narcotics Commissioner, as cited in UNDCP: ROSA, South Asia Drug 1996-97 (see table). If these data are correct there is Demand Reduction Report — 1988, New Delhi: UNDCP Regional Office for South time. Society's present discordant relationship with brown a clear case for opening the register afresh and enu- Asia, 1998, p.268. sugar may be an outcome of extensive secular use. Experiences merating all types of opiate addicts.If over 10,000 of of altered states of consciousness depend as much on the users’ the opium addicts registered in 1957 are still alive in Especially since the 1960s, the US and its allies have applied dispositions and the cultural setting as the substance. Previous 2001, there is no case at all on the grounds of public health why an opium maintenance programme various pressures on developing countries to comply with UN studies have illustrated norms for the use of traditional drugs, should not be introduced in the country. mandates on drug-related matters. We described above how but traditional norms do not exist for derivative and synthetic (52) Initially,Nepal felt that banning cannabis would the Sri Lankan authorities were forced to quit providing opium drugs(54). be a disaster, that measures against cannabis were to vedaralas(52). culturally and regionally inappropriate. They attempted to integrate cannabis cultivation and trade Entry of pharmaceutical drugs within the white economy while controlling smug- Changes in the perception of cannabis Pharmaceutical drugs have recently made major inroads gling through regulations.These were abandoned The influx of "flower children" from the West suddenly among addicts. They are cheaper, easier to obtain and the sup- under international pressure to enforce punitive ap- increased demand for cannabis. This provided an opportunity ply is regular. These include morphine, codeine, Tidigesic proaches. They were told that the penalty for disobedience would be total withdrawal of develop- for some to make quick money,with the retail price of charas ris- (buprenorphine, a narcotic antagonist often used for detoxifica- mental aid (Fisher, 1975, ibid.). ing from US$15 per kilogram to about US$70 in 1973. Once tion and maintenance), tranquillisers, stimulants, hypnotics, hal-

FORMER NEXT 19 Chapter 1 lucinogens and even anaesthetic agents such as ketamine. In three types of heroin (000, 555, 777 or Afghani, Paki or Deshi- some places, people are injecting crude heroin with pharma- Indian) on the streets of Bombay and Delhi. ceuticals.We have few mechanisms for controlling addicts’ supplies of legal drugs that fall under the NDPS Act. Some 95% of . Astute marketing: From 1980 to almost 1995, crude pharmaceutical shops do not normally ask for prescriptions or heroin (brown sugar) was sold in small plastic vials for around retain the prescriptions after dispensing drugs,so the same pre- US$0.12, which is affordable for anyone smoking beedis (low- scription can be re-used. This is part of the general malaise of a cost "country" cigarettes made of tobacco and leaf)(57). disorganised society where following proper procedures is not . Reduction in the supply of raw drugs: India had thou- the "done thing". sands of grassroots vendors of cannabis and opium prior to the NDPS Act. After this law was passed, this had to be done secret- The shift from cannabis and opium to heroin ly. Traditional vendors had three main choices: quit selling the Wherever the global norms were enforced, mostly in drug,sell heroin for high profits and bribe law-enforcement offi- cities and border areas, many cannabis and opium users cials,or face long jail terms.Smoking cannabis attracts attention shifted to heroin, probably for the following reasons: because it has a powerful aroma, but one can smoke a heroin- filled cigarette without being noticed; cannabis and opium are (53) NARC, 1987, A Profile of Drug Users in India.An . Availability: 1979 was an important year in the bulky and thus risky to transport; heroin gives higher profits at unpublished report on drug users in nine areas of dynamics of Indian drug use. Afghanistan began producing less risk. Besides, heroin processors created high demand for India submitted to the Ministry of Welfare, New large quantities of heroin during the fight against the USSR, in opium. Hence, supplies of cannabis and opium decreased while Delhi. which the US used Pakistan as a conduit for its cash, arms and their cost rose to that of crude heroin in places like Bombay. (54) Charles, M. et al. 1998, A new Slavery: An ethnographic Study of Heroin use in Bombay.(under publi- training/logistical support. Authorities in both countries either . Sri Lanka too has had a shift from opium to heroin use cation). connived with or ignored the heroin trade since larger strategic since the 1980s. This substitution was natural, as opium was no (55)The government orders ran something like this: interests were involved. Parts of India were used as transit longer available through licensed shops. Earlier, itinerant "No one shall cultivate poppy in more than 25 hectares points to traffic heroin to the West, especially after the Shah of Chinese and Muslim traders sold opium and cannabis along of land". In the following years, a 10% reduction in the land Iran fell. It is a well-founded cliché that transit points become with other commodities. When opium was not available legally area under poppy cultivation was ordered. In one consuming places. or in the black market, opium eaters suffered and some com- year,they even announced "a cut holiday".The gov- mitted suicide. In 1982 several persons died after consuming ernment reduced the commission payable to the Within India, the large inventory of unsold opium prompted heroin adulterated with arsenic(58). lambardars (officially recognised middle men who (55) collect opium from farmers and bring it to the gov- three government strategies . ernment depot) from 3.5% to 1.75%).The price per . Reduce poppy acreage by administrative fiats Drug use in India has been a benign phenomenon up to this kilo that the government paid to the farmers was . Marginally reduce the retail price of opium point, and we must do everything possible to keep it that way. also reduced marginally. Though the government . Cut commission rates to authorised middle-men Most cannabis users have continued to use it, as have most did not save a great amount of money, the signals were clear: "we do not want to stock more opium". opium users. Only repression-related scarcity of these tradition- (56) In the late 1990s, the UNDCP advised the GoI The government tried to reduce the area under poppy cul- al drugs may push some of them to opt for harder drugs. In to increase the acreage to 30,000 hectares. tivation from over 114,000 hectares in 1970 to 14,000 hectares Bhubaneswar in Orissa,medical records of addicts treated at the (56) In the late 1990s, the UNDCP advised the GoI by 1980(56). This was necessary because mechanised, large- Centre for Youth and Social Development indicate that in 1988- to increase the acreage to 30,000 hectares. (57) For further details, see Charles et al.1999.Ibid scale poppy cultivation using the poppy straw method in a 90 hardly any heroin addicts came for treatment; most patients (58) Ratnayake, Y (1998), National Dangerous few countries (e.g. Australia, in Tasmania) allowed production were opium addicts who also used cannabis. By 1995, over 30% Drugs Control Board, Report of the Asian Multi- of morphine at highly competitive prices. Whether the gov- of the patients had resorted to occasional injecting of tidigesic city Epidemiology study group meeting, Penang, ernment’s low price for opium and the black market demand when brown sugar was not available. It is also possible that (November). Arlington (1987), Asia Regional Narcotics Awareness at ten times that amount induced diversion is hard to say since large-scale diversion of opium to heroin production is making Survey:Washington : USAID. we have no research on it. In any case, since 1985 we have had raw opium scarce in the black market.

FORMER NEXT 20 Chapter 1 The shift to injecting drugs The process of criminalisation Again, we contend that drug use/abuse in India has not The lives of the marginalised,who are especially visible users, reached the alarming stage that is claimed(59). Though much revolve around the drug more than with less marginalised users. publicity has been given to the WHO-supported project in Users retreat to private spots to smoke brown sugar (a practice Manipur, it must be remembered that the number of addicts known as "chasing the dragon") and avoid the associated stig- in that entire state does not exceed 25,000. In Bombay, not ma. They find it difficult to continue with their occupation once even one percent of addicts are injection drug users (IDUs). their daily heroin requirement increases beyond their financial Injecting has emerged significantly in small pockets, but most capacity, and they cannot remain a part of "the system". areas have not even a single IDU. Again, this is important for policy formulation. Addicts are not yet contributing signifi- Many identifiable users are self-employed in activities such cantly to the spread of HIV in India. We need to study why as rag-picking, begging and manual labour. Another means of addicts in cities like Bombay are not resorting to injection, and earning a living is theft of private and government property. why some addicts start injecting drugs.The answers may vary Some users who pilfer government goods do not consider it a from region to region, so we should seek situation-specific crime since they are not harming a specific person. solutions. In the city of Madras too, injection of tidigesic (a pharmaceutical opiate) began after a major crackdown on Petty drug peddling has become an important income organised criminals across the state for three months after a source for some users. This takes various forms. One petty ped- (59) The exceptions are Nagaland, Manipur and former prime minister was assassinated near the city (Personal dler may regularly collect money from a group of users to Mizoram, where injection has become a popular mode of drug intake.We can only surmise the rea- communication to Britto by Dr. M. Suresh based on his analy- obtain drugs for them from another locality, in return for some sons for the popularity of injecting drugs in this re- sis of the drug de-addiction centre he heads,which is attached of the brown sugar. At times, he may take the drugs he pur- gion.This could be partly because: to the Kilpauk Mental Health Institute(60). chased for others and lie down somewhere, completely lost in his own world, while the others await his arrival. Another may .White heroin available there is of very good quality and the youth may want to ensure that every bit of We need to stop the trend of opium users moving to heroin buy drugs for a rich person or another peddler and get paid in it enters their body (in the chasing mode which is or pharmaceutical opiates, taken orally or by injection. A well- drugs, or perhaps merely get to "chase" the leftovers in the foil. common for heroin users in most parts of the coun- planned maintenance programme can prevent the very real try, some vapour is lost to the wind). danger that opium and brown sugar users will be pushed to Petty peddling can also include selling one drug to pur- . The influence of films that the youth see there.The inject pharmaceutical opiates or crude heroin. If we had regis- chase another. One female peddler's brother is addicted to Nagas and the Mizos love music and dance. tered opium addicts and issued them licences to procure pure several drugs; she gives him a certain daily amount of brown Contemporary films that attract the youth in this region opium at controlled rates from approved outlets we could have sugar. He and his two assistants sell the brown sugar to pur- are mostly imported ones,often portraying discothe- averted this situation. It is not too late to implement the provi- chase liquor and Nitrated tablets (a pharmaceutical opiate). As ques,gang wars,and dancing,with "heavy metal" music and drug peddling and injecting drug use. sions of the NDPS Act that sanction this practice. multiple drug use has harmed his health, he is totally dependent on his assistants, who are happy with the arrangement, .They may learn it in the company of foreigners who What criminalisation does to urban youth since they get their day's requirement of drugs and food in studied with them in various universities in India. In this subsection, we use case studies and field observation return for their services. Many youth from this region have studied in different Indian universities where they feel totally alien- to describe the evident consequences of criminalising drug use ated from the locals, who invariably think that they in places such as Bombay. We need to draw lessons for the Some become regular assistants to peddlers,often receiving are Japanese,Thais or such eastern people.Thus they country at large. On the fronts of crime and addiction, we are in return drugs, food and a place to sleep. stick with foreigners from developing countries in- lucky to be in a benign phase, despite 20 years of heroin prolif- cluding several from African countries. Drug-using foreigners seem to have a predilection for injection. eration. Bombay, despite its many addicts, is one of the safest While some specialise in dealing with stolen public goods, cities in India. We need to take preventive measures to ensure and others sell their family assets. The purchasers or intermedi- . Maybe in their cultures, bearing pain without that the situation does not deteriorate. aries who arrange for sales of stolen goods make more money flinching an eye lid is a way of showing manliness. FORMER NEXT 21 Chapter 1 than the addicts who steal the objects. Knowing the users’ des- in Nagaland. ActionAid India has brought out a document perate needs for drugs, the intermediaries cash in on their "Widows of IDUs in Manipur"(62).According to the existing NGOs in plights(61). Imphal, the years 1997-99 witnessed maximum numbers of deaths (1200-2000) among IDUs who were injecting heroin since While poor users face problems when they become part of the late the 80s leaving behind as many widows in the age group the marginalised segment, marginalisation can be extremely 18-30 yrs. Manipuri women in general are becoming exposed to painful to persons from the richer strata of society.They find it dif- HIV/AIDS through their sexual partners (such as husband and ficult to adjust to street life, such as using open spaces as toilets. boyfriends). A large number of females are also into injecting drugs and are involved in a growing complex industry of com- (60) In Bombay, it may be because of the liberal Some drug users are among Bombay’s petty thieves.Violent mercial sex, spreading the HIV virus to many more. Women in availability of brown sugar (crude heroin) in the city crime related to drug use is not unknown in India, but is still Manipur are finding themselves faced with the burden of caring for full two decades in the city,almost continuously at very low rates (affordable even by rag-picking rare,unlike New York,Chicago and London.Addicted thieves are for their husbands and sexual partners who are ill with AIDS. children); for US$1.00 you could get three ‘quarter- seldom arrested nowadays. Indeed, bad experiences with users When they become widows, they experience a lack of econom- gram’packets. Is it because of the general aversion undergoing withdrawal in the lock-up (e.g.,breaking light bulbs ic/emotional/social supports from the in-laws. In some cases, of Indians to taking injections? and swallowing the pieces, or trying to commit suicide) the their children are taken away from them and are looked after by Why did the injecting practice begin in Bombay at police now tend to avoid arresting addicts, not wanting the their husbands’ families. This gives them theoretically the option all? Again, we have only key informant opinions on added workload of having to rush them to hospital. Some users of remarriage by their families. These young widows are already this:It could have begun due to a repression-related have died in custody. To avoid arrest, some slash themselves stigmatised, and victimised by society. Some widows resort to scarcity of heroin in Bombay for two short periods. with razor blades, usually on the chest or hands.They use a new commercial sex or continue to have multiple sexual partners. Bombay generally has had a laissez faire attitude to most underworld dealings, including drugs.There blade each time since "it is safer".Police officers fear such "crazy" Since this is a clandestine activity, it puts their sexual partners at were two occasions when there could have been a behaviour and would rather avoid them. Others apply human the risk of contracting HIV infection. Such behaviour further temporary shortage of heroin due to excessive po- excrement or filth from the gutters to their bodies to avoid the aggravates their health because they themselves are liable to lice/army presence in the city coupled with imposi- police. Is this what we want for the millions of traditional drug contract several diseases from such sexual partners (sexually tion of curfew in select places: During the Hindu- Muslim riots which began on 6 January 1993 as a se- users? It appears that law enforcers do not want it since de facto transmitted diseases, hepatitis B, tuberculosis…Such co-morbidi- quel to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in they are only implementing the law in a token manner in most ties have adverse impact on their health, economic and social Ayodhya on 6 December, 1992, and after the serial of the country. condition". bomb blast that shook the city on 6 April 1993. On both occasions, the police were swarming all over the city, and curfew had been imposed in sensitive While many policy makers look to the law for solutions, few places.It is possible that hard-core addicts could not have bothered to understand the extent to which lives are An Alternative Paradigm manage their withdrawal symptoms and reached wrecked by criminalising drug use. out to pharmaceutical shops and started injecting. Overall, the drug situation is still in a benign stage in India, A significant number of addicted foreigners who Widowhood and paediatric HIV-positive cases though moving in dangerous directions. The country still has come to India are familiar with and opt for the in- Although we indicated that the problem of injection-related diverse patterns of drug use; cultural norms in rural areas con- jection mode of drug intake.Injection drug use may HIV in Manipur has been highly exaggerated to skew the trol drug use to traditional forms. Drug-related HIV too is have been introduced especially by addicted for- national policy, the reality there is a pointer to all of us as to extremely minor in the national context of drug use, as are eigners stranded in Bombay (See an End Note on Stranded foreign nationals and the drug problem). what can happen if we do not prevent the benign drug use crime rates related to drug use. Our premise is to find the best from becoming a monster gobbling up our youth across the strategies to contain the drug situation at the present stage. Inappropriate drug prevention materials may have in- country. Hangzo Manzachin (2000) is worth quoting here: troduced ID use in Bombay.When Bombay had prac- In this section, we explain why the current approach is tically no IDUs,most of the audio-visual and print material showed the addict invariably with a long needle "The rate of incidence among IDUs of sero-positivity for HIV in impractical, harmful and directionless, a mere copy of western poking a vein with the caption "Drugs kill". Myanmar is 75%. It is 71% in Manipur, 63% in Mizoram, and 69% models or submission to western dictates. We must define the

FORMER NEXT 22 Chapter 1 problems and find solutions for ourselves. We propose opium heritage, and is a crime because it erodes traditional medicines, maintenance as a practical, effective and cost-effective measure, undermines the credibility of traditional practitioners and and deplore attempts to institute buprenorphine maintenance. deprives millions of their only accessible medicines. We conclude by recalling several recommendations already . In a structurally unequal society such as India’s, the made above. powerful will use draconian laws such as the NDPS Act to oppress the poor and the marginalised, and equally poor con- Current approach is impractical stables (vested with state authority) will use the laws to make Many factors make it impractical to implement global norms economic gains. for drugs among the Indian people: . The emerging scenario is ominous. Criminalising traditional drugs causes a shift to more dangerous substances that lack . Very few laws are implemented effectively. cultural moorings, such as brown sugar (heroin) and alcohol, as Consumption behaviour is so intrinsically cultural that the formal seen in Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat. legal system seldom manages to change it overnight. . The situation of the cities and northeast will recur in . India does not have enough jail space or human more of the country and force India to manage large amounts resources to house all users of traditional drugs. The NCB has of secular drug use which will be hidden because of criminali- 230 operatives to cover a country of billion people, though sev- sation, making users more vulnerable to infections such as eral other agencies are empowered to enforce drug laws. HIV. . Law and order is a state matter in India, in contrast with federal (central) government functions. Successful imple- The current approach is inadequate mentation of the central government’s NDPS Act depends upon Drug abuse is now seen as a disease or habit with moral and co-operation from state enforcement agencies. criminal aspects, which can be controlled and eradicated . Local enforcement personnel (constables) share the through enforcement and medical or psychological assistance. cultural values of their communities; to live in peace, they must This approach ignores the cultural reality of controlled use that be subservient to the local power structures. existed for centuries in India and in many other countries. . Many constables do not perceive opium or cannabis use as a crime because it has enjoyed cultural sanction for cen- The approach to drug control known as "harm minimisation" turies. consists in most countries of little more than needle exchanges (61) An illustration: One user explained to us that it and/or methadone/tidigesic maintenance for those addicted to is difficult for people like him to pretend to be ordi- . At best, in the cities, the enforcement personnel can injecting heroin.This approach would be overly restrictive in India, nary vendors and sell their goods, because they do use the law to extract supplementary wages. where such people make up a tiny minority of drug users. India this when they are in urgent need of money for drugs, . No Indian will tamper with the religious use of needs an approach to harm minimisation that would consider and seldom wait for a good bargain.Besides,they are afraid of being noticed by the police or any other per- cannabis. Imagine anyone preventing the Sadhus and Sadhvis other forms of drug use. son in authority,as they have the telltale signs of their from their spiritual use of cannabis (meditation purposes). habit: black marks on their fingers (resulting from . Thousands of itinerant Muslim and Hindu priests In India, the first focus in harm minimisation should be on pre- burns from the match sticks used to heat up the preach at each of their halts; imagine anyone going and dis- venting the millions of opium users from shifting to brown sugar heroin).The sale of stolen goods can occur on a very small scale, but on a continuous basis, it can be a fi- turbing them from smoking cannabis! heroin or pharmaceuticals, and to help prevent heroin "chasers" nancially viable proposition for the buyer.We actually from shifting to injection. witnessed a scene where an addict tried to sell a pair The current approach is harmful of spectacles for INR 75 (USD 1.7), kept reducing the . We have powerfully demonstrated that the mal-inter- The country needs to conceptualise programmes that are sen- offer price, and when he came down to INR 10 (USD 0.23),the customer grabbed it. pretation of "medicinal use" in the Single Convention — confin- sitive and relevant to regional cultures and that address the issues (62) Bangalore:ActionAid,2000. ing it to allopathic medicine — is pernicious, destroys human of development in the given localities. This is the most effective

FORMER NEXT 23 Chapter 1 framework for drug control. India does not need supposedly all- . India uncritically acquiesced to the "graduation" theo- encompassing, valid-for-all, global legislation that is alien to the ry, banning traditional cultural, religious, recreational use of cultural settings. We comprehensively reject the global common cannabis and opium. Of course, most current habitués of heroin code and strategies and argue for culture-specific policies and pro- previously used drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, cannabis or grammes. opium, but most of the millions of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and opium users have not "graduated" to heavier drugs, and will not The situation can still be salvaged do so unless forced by the legal system. The above description of addicts entering the world of crime . Study "brand" loyalties: analyse the process of gradu- in urban areas such as Bombay shows what will happen through- ation from traditional drugs to synthetic/derivative drugs. More out the country if we seriously enforce the NDPS Act. Despite the than half the battle is won if we can prevent the millions of onslaught of brown sugar and pharmaceuticals, cannabis cannabis and opium users from switching to pharmaceuticals or remains today the "poor man’s liquor" in most of the country,and heroin, and if we can prevent heroin users from adopting injection opium is still smoked, drunk and eaten in rural areas. as a mode of intake. . Do not complicate the situation by introducing mainte- Respect India’s cultural kaleidoscope nance programmes with pharmaceuticals; re-introduce India’s policy makers should consult the many brilliant works opium/cannabis maintenance. The law already provides for by the country’s anthropologists and sociologists that elucidate opium/cannabis maintenance.The Act also provides for registering India’s complex social organisation.Traditional culture still effec- addicts,issuing them licenses (for fees that vary from state to state) tively controls drug abuse in most parts of the country. and establishing depots to supply them with opium and cannabis Unfortunately, most planning of drug policies and programmes on a weekly basis. Our talks with officials have revealed that col- to date has merely included a few patchy studies in major cities, lectors in different states are lifting quantities from the central which do not reflect the realities of the country as a whole.Thus, depots for the above purposes. But international pressures have despite considerable local variations in typology of drug use,we prevented the official institution of registering opium addicts and have uniform, national strategies and campaigns. The policies cannabis users and selling them quotas of pure quality, and at lump all drugs together under one rubric, ignoring variations in controlled rates. Despite plentiful evidence of numerous opium addictive potential, linkages to cultural controls, and variations addicts in India (a single treatment centre in Rajasthan treated in the degree of danger that different drugs present for individ- over 30,000 opium addicts in ten years), government registers uals and society. show only 10,000 opium addicts,and no one is sure whether these old addicts are being supplied with opium. The vast majority of India’s drug users still prefer opium and . Stop taking worst-case scenarios seen in tiny pockets as cannabis, despite inroads by alcohol, heroin and pharmaceuti- the basis for national planning. cals. Thus, damage control at this stage must be on the follow- . The pandemic of HIV/AIDS calls for area-specific pro- ing lines: grammes. In some parts of India the connection to drug use is very high: in Manipur, 72% of injection drug users are HIV-posi- . Acknowledge that the complex reality of the drug tive(63). problem requires a sophisticated response, not short cuts. . Question the process of stigmatising and criminalis- . India needs to develop its own solutions to the drug ing drug use, which has revered traditions in this country. (63) That brings up the probability of a new entrant problem; importing policies blindly will only complicate the . Making drug use a serious crime pushes the trade into acquiring HIV with the first intake, since newcomers are taught to use the needle and syringe by vet- problem. the hands of organised crime syndicates and makes reintegration erans.In the northeast region,due to police and mil- . Tailor programmes to specific drugs, cultures, and all the more difficult. itary frisking people all the time and everywhere,ad- intake modes. dicts hide their equipment and share it. FORMER NEXT 24 Chapter 1 . Young addicts put in prisons, where sodomy is com- Certified addicts can be given licences to obtain drugs. In mon and supply of condoms is yet to be contemplated, are like- any case,district officials must maintain depots to provide these ly to acquire STDs, hepatitis andHIV. Drug control is not a prop- substances for medical treatment of cattle and human beings. er role of the criminal justice system. . Taken to its logical conclusion, criminalisation of drug Efficient use requires a totalitarian government. Even assuming that all Traditional drug-control methods are cost-effective.The idea Indians accept the global norms and that the government has of introducing methadone maintenance to India was squarely enough institutional framework to prosecute and incarcerate all rejected at a joint consultation the USA’s ADAMHA and the addicts, it would be impractical. There is just no way that the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences at government can arrest over 60 million cannabis users, around Bangalore, India, in 1987, on the following grounds: five million opium users and probably a million heroin users . We have mountains of unsold opium stock; across the country, keep them in jail for years, feed them, ruin . We have a long tradition of registering and maintain- their educations and careers, introduce them to the criminal ing opium addicts. world and subject them to the forced homosexual life style that . We cannot afford to import methadone (methadone prevails in prisons. was still under patent at that time). . The ruling class would not agree to make India a . Even if the government were to adopt a prohibition- police state, for many reasons. Indira Gandhi and her party were ist stance,present narcotics and opium/ganja laws allow addict- trounced in the elections after she imposed an internal emer- ed persons to be licensed on medical grounds of addiction. gency, centralised all authority, arrested many people and ruled . Cannabis or opium under licence would cost some as if the country had no civil liberties. That is a lesson no politi- US$2 per week, compared to a daily cost of US$1.25 for crude cian will ever forget. Also, several rich, famous and powerful heroin "on the street". Indians have children who are addicted. The government may . The proposed remedy in a pilot program sponsored by pass laws under international pressure, but implementation will the European Commission at seven locations is atrocious. These be subject to a host of variables.These are dealt within another centres use three tablets per person per day of buprenorphine, paper(64). sold by an Indian company, Rhusan Pharma for about INR 40 per . Why be hypocritical on international platforms? Let us tablet, or about US$0.95 Thus, the tablets alone cost US$3.00 per state our position without fear. If India can defy the internation- person per day. In contrast, an average addict spends about al community by detonating an atom bomb, we should have US$1.50 per day on crude heroin. the moral authority to say "no" to international dictates that complicate rather than help contain the drug problem in our Note that this tablet is to be administered under the obser- country. vation of qualified medical personnel, so the addict has to sit in the clinic for about two hours.Addicts, lacking time sense, come Feasibility throughout the day,so the professionals have to be available.All The government of India supports over 370 drug-treatment this adds to the costs of the program.In addition, what prevents centres. Doctors at these centres can determine if an individual the drug company from periodically increasing the price? Three can become drug-free, or whether opium/cannabis mainte- discussions with a company executive produced only non-com- nance would better prevent harm to himself, his family, and mittal responses:if all the centres in India adopt the drug and all society. Also, the large, government-run hospitals in each dis- addicts are put on it for maintenance,economies of scale would trict can take up the task of certifying local addicts, in coopera- bring down the cost. (64) Britto G. 2000. Predictors of Drug Trafficking in tion with medical associations and NGOs. India, Bombay: NARC (Unpublished Monograph).

FORMER NEXT 25 Chapter 1 It is fine for the seven centres to dish out buprenorphine while EC funding continues, though only 18 months remained of the EC’s funding commitment as of this writing. More seriously,this creates a new of population of persons addicted to an expensive prescription drug that has to be taken under observation.Unless the EC provides perennial funding, this will create a grey or black market for yet another drug, and an expensive one too.

Conclusion As part of the UNESCO-MOST programme on the drug problem, we undertook this research as a continuation of our earlier work on culture and drugs under a similar project of the International Catholic University Federation. In this chapter we have presented the dimensions of culture in India, its power of the communities, its variety, its role in defining consumption behaviour with a focus on drug consumption. Traditional uses of drugs sanctioned by culture were pointed out. Medicinal use of opium and cannabis received special attention. We proceeded to describe the kaleidoscopic nature of drug use in the country and the inadequate manner in which we are tackling it shown to be because we are culturally insensitive in planning; that we ape the west and that we are slavish in accepting their dictates fully realising that these measures are making the problem more difficult and dangerous in legal, medical and social dimensions of the life of our youth. It is a clarion call for social scientists to assist the policy makers with appropriate data and models including opium maintenance.

FORMER NEXT 26 Chapter 1 END NOTES Bhang is mixed with milk, dry fruits and other nutrients; boiled and drunk. In some parts, bhang is also an ingredient in 1. Traditional Drugs of India (Unless otherwise eatables. specified, this note is extracted from Charles, 1999 and Chopra and Chopra___.) Ganja/Marijuana Cannabis sativa This form of the drug is made from the dried flowering and/ This plant is considered native to Western and Central Asia or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant with a resinous exuding and it is growing wild in the sub-Himalayan tract in abundance from the glandular hairs due to lack of pollination. The plant is in Punjab, Bengal, Bihar, the Deccan plateau, Kashmir, Kerala and harvested when the lower leaves fall off and the flowering tops in the hilly areas of Tamil Nadu (in recent times in some of these begin to turn yellow. After the floral spikes are removed, the states cannabis has been grown as an illicit cash crop supplying agglutinated mass is called Ganja.This is further treated to pre- to trafficking networks). pare the different types of Ganja: flat Ganja, round ganja and choora ganja. The difference lies in the methods of production, The drug is obtained from the dried leaves and the dried which are supposed to affect potency. flowering and fruiting tops of the pistil late plants, and it is the resin that contains the active ingredient. Male plants are Charas/hashish removed as soon as they are detected in order to increase the Charas is the resinous matter collected from the leaves and secretion of resin on the unfertilised female plants. The use of flowering tops of the female plant. Six months after the sowing, the plant and its products varies from one part to another in big tuffs of flowers appear on top of the plant and this is the the country. But broadly speaking, the Cannabis sativa plant is time for harvesting.The tuffs are collected and the female flow- processed into three main products before it is consumed: er heads are dried before being broken and crushed. This pow- bhang, ganja and charas. der is then kneaded with wooden rods to form the greenish mass with a characteristic odor — charas. After being com- Bhang pressed, it is sold as lumps of various shapes. The resin content The other names for this product are Siddhi, Sabji and Patti. of good quality charas is around 40 per cent. Since the cannabis The mode of preparation varies from one region to another. plant grown in India does not yield large quantities of resin, it is One common method uses only leaves. Tender leaves of slightly different from the hashish produced in other countries cannabis are ground into a paste and rolled into small balls such as Morocco or Afghanistan, which is made up exclusively called bhang. To prepare this mildest form of the drug, plants of resin (Chopra, 1990). Because Indian domestic production of growing wild in the states of Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, charas is limited, most of the charas consumed in the country is Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are used. Collection and storage of smuggled in from Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the past, the leaves are allowed only under government license. It is before charas was banned in India,a major source of import was interesting to note that the Indian lawmakers have left out Central Asia. For instance, Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan, was bhang from the purview of the Narcotic Drugs and long reputed in India for its high quality charas. The Indian Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The plant is harvested Government has prohibited this trade. before it matures. It is then dried through exposure to sun and dew. To separate the stem from the leaves and flowers it is Other forms of Cannabis use struck against a block of wood. Later, the leaves are pressed and Certain cannabis users mix it with other substances that they stored in earthen vessels. By the end of process what remains is eat or smoke.It is also mixed with active ingredients such as alco- a coarse powder with 15 percent moisture. hol,datura,opium and seeds of nux vomica to make psychoactive beverages.Users of long standing in order to increase the narcot-

FORMER NEXT 27 Chapter 1 ic effects of cannabis commonly add datura. Grassroots traders guava and betel leaves in water, filtering it and heating it over a often mix datura seeds with Ganja to increase the volume (There slow fire) forms madak. Madak is then made into pills, which are have been several cases where datura seeds have been crushed smoked in a hubble-bubble pipe, or water pipe, known as and drunk to commit suicide). Other substances used less fre- hukka. Similarly, chandu is prepared by mixing half-burnt ashes quently include juice of Calotropis gigantea, bamboo shoots, of both madak and kimam in equal measures and then smoked arsenic (As2, O3) and strychnine. by a special long pipe with a brass or tin bowl at the far-end. Another product, "bonda chai" (bonda tea), is prepared from To make cannabis decoctions more potent, copper coins are capsules of powdered opium, which are brewed with tea. The sometimes boiled along with bhang leaves. Madra, a drink made use of bonda chai is still prevalent in the states of Punjab and from cannabis, contains datura, opium, bhang and alcohol. This Madhya Pradesh, mainly among truck drivers and bonded was common in Baluchistan in West Pakistan as well. Another labourers. alcoholic drink called boja, consumed in Sholapur district of Maharashtra, is made by fermenting jowar (Sorghum Vulgare) Opium is eaten in many parts of India in the form of a pill. In grains, cannabis and seeds of nux vomica. certain areas of Saurasthra, in northern Gujarat State, and in Rajasthan, an opium pill is pounded and mixed with water and Papaver somniferum other ingredients (saffron,musk,sugar,etc.) to form a drink called The earliest description of poppy in Indian literature is avail- kasumba. From Kashmir to Andhra Pradesh, from Assam to able in Dhanwarti Nighantu, ca. 1000 AD. ). Some authors claim Maharashtra, opium is smoked while it is placed below the that the plant was introduced in 300 BC by Alexander the Great, tongue in the Punjab where Sikh religion prohibits smoking any- the Greek conqueror. Another theory is that it was the Mongols thing. who brought poppy to India during the 13th century. Indeed, the influence of the Mughals was much stronger, as can be seen by 2. International Protocols the close resemblance in both Arabic and various languages of In 1906, Britain agreed to stop its opium exports to China, India of words for opium, poppy seeds and poppy plant (Husain, provided China also ceased opium cultivation. In 1909, on the 1983). Its medicinal value for diarrhoea and sexual disability was initiative of US president Theodore Roosevelt, a commission described in texts of traditional systems of Indian medicine such called at Shanghai to investigate the problem of opium abuse as Shodal Gadanigarha, ca. 1200 AD, and Sharargdbar Samhita, marked the beginning of international action on this issue. 1400 AD (Husain, 1983). Although opium was in use prior to the Representatives from 13 countries, without powers to sign Mughal era, it is they who developed cultivation of poppy and agreements, discussed the problem in broad perspective and sale of opium trade in a systematic manner thus creating a base passed resolutions. for the British to expand. This was followed by a series of conventions (1912, 1925, Forms of Opium used 1931,1936,1946,1948 and 1953) and protocols called under the Over the years, crude opium, afim, has been prepared in a auspices of the League of Nations and then the United Nations variety of ways.Three common methods of preparing afim were (UN).The successive meetings achieved the emergence of effec- madak, chandu and dross. Dross, which had a low demand, has tive regulations on certain dimensions of the problem and disappeared from the present Indian drug scene. The prepara- expansion of the body of member nations. In 1961, the Single tion of both madak and chandu involved the recurrent washing Convention was formulated by codifying all the existing provi- and filtration of afim followed by heating over a slow fire to get sions in the previous treaties into one. Several new provisions kimam, which is the base for both products. Kimam mixed with were also included.This came into force in December 1964.The an equal quantity of jesu (a semi-solid mixture made by boiling major provisions are as follows:

FORMER NEXT 28 Chapter 1 a. Narcotic drugs of plant origin, namely, opium, cannabis efforts to prevent illicit production, trafficking and use of nar- and cocaine, their salts and derivatives and other synthetic cotics. It enhances the role of INCB by giving it the additional drugs known to cause addiction came under the control of the responsibility of ensuring a balance between supply and convention. demand of narcotic drugs for medical and scientific purposes b.To limit cultivation, production, manufacture, sale and dis- and the efforts to prevent illicit cultivation, production, manu- tribution of these narcotic drugs strictly for medical and scien- facture, traffic and use. In order to carry its mission successfully, tific purposes only. INCB gained wide powers to make recommendations to the c. Introduced a system of import certificates and export concerned governments. The UN as an international advisory authorisations with governmental approval for each consign- body is taking steps to co-ordinate and facilitate the smooth ment from both the import and export authorities. operation of the various national and international agencies d. To provide statistics and regular reports concerning pro- working towards this goal. duction, manufacture, consumption, stocks of drugs and import and export of such drugs. The Convention of Psychotropic Substances, 1971 included e. To have quantitative limitation over each substance. The many new substances, including psychedelics such as LSD and nations are to send their annual requirements of each drug in Mescaline, as well as stimulants, sedatives, and tranquillisers. So advance to the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB). far the strategy was to control the spread of drugs through the f. In accordance to the estimate, poppy cultivation is regulat- licit market. This was not adequate to check the illicit flow. ed by nominating a few countries for production of required Recognising the need for effectively combating, the UN also crop.The farmers have to procure licenses for cultivation. expanded its machinery. Special bodies were formulated with g. INCB can apply embargo on not only drug importing increased cooperation between the nations and the United countries but drug exporting countries also. Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control (now renamed as United h.Such traditional practices as opium smoking,opium eating, Nations Drug Control Programme, UNDCP) came into existence. coca leaf chewing, hashish smoking, or the use of cannabis for Its primary function is to provide financial aid and supervise non-medical purposes are prohibited. major anti-drug projects and programmes. i. Medical treatment and rehabilitation to be provided to the abusers. In 1984 UN passed a declaration on the control of drug j. To designate as punishable offences, all intentional viola- trafficking and drug abuse. In 1987, at the initiative of the UN tions of its control provisions regarding cultivation, production Secretary General, an international conference called to dis- manufacture, trade distribution etc. drugs laid down in the cuss the global menace of drug abuse and illicit trafficking treaty. produced a framework of guidelines for dealing with reduc- k. Extradition recommended in cases of offences against tion of both supply and demand of drugs and suppression of convention and if extradition is not possible, a foreign offender illicit trafficking under the title, "Multi-disciplinary Outline of is to be prosecuted in the country in which the offence was Future Activities" in relation to the problems of drug abuse committed of in the country in which he was found. and illicit trafficking. Despite the efforts of all the countries to combat it, the flow of drugs only increased. The need was felt This new treaty also streamlined the control machinery, to streamline the areas where concerted efforts were required, which was an important step in strengthening the impact of in response to this alarming increase.The United Nations con- the international community’s efforts. The Single Convention vention against Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and was further strengthened by the 1972 protocol with further Psychotropic Substances was convened in 1988. It addressed amendments, which came into force in August 1975. This pro- the various aspects of illicit drug trafficking, particularly those tocol emphasises the necessity for renewed and increasing not envisaged in the previous international drug control

FORMER NEXT 29 Chapter 1 treaties. The articles of the 1988 convention cover the follow- In 1998,the UN convened a Special General Assembly to dis- ing areas (UN, 1990): cuss the control of money laundering. Since India agrees to everything in the drug field, our law ministry formulated the a. Adequate sanctions for offences relating to drug traffick- Money Laundering (Prevention) Bill. The Lok Sabha has passed ing. it but the Rajya Sabha has sent it to a select committee for b. Identification, tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation review.The business tycoons of our country through their orga- of proceeds and property derived from drug trafficking. nizations (FICCI, IMC et al.) have protested loudly to bring Courts are empowered to make available or to seise ban finan- money laundering under the purview of criminal law. cial or commercial records. Bank secrecy cannot be involved in such cases. c. Extradition for offences relating to drug trafficking. d. Provision of mutual legal assistance in investigations, prosecutions and proceedings. e.Transfer of proceedings for criminal prosecution. f. Other forms of co-operation, particularly among law enforcement agencies, in fields such as training. g. International co-operation and assistance for transit states. h.Monitoring of substances used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. i. Prevention of diversion of materials and equipment for production of illicit drugs. j. Measures to eradicate illicit cultivation of narcotic plants and to eliminate demand for illicit drugs. k. Measures to ensure that commercial carriers are not used to transport illicit drugs. l.Suppression of illicit traffic in free trade zones,ports and by sea. m. Suppression of the use of the mails for illicit traffic.

Most of the affected countries are members of the UN and they either make amendments of formulate new laws following the UN conventions and protocols. The legal edifice and the mode of enforcement vary from country to country depending on the specific nature of the problem.

The 1988 convention is a major achievement in the march to control illegal supply of drugs, but only if followed to the letter. In order to realise this,legislation is not enough.The governments of all the nations have to make firm determinations to check the illegal trade.

FORMER

30 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 mal market in Rio de Janeiro due to the presence of drug traf- VIOLENCE fickers in the city,especially in the favelas,has criminalised the in- IN RIO DE JANEIRO: formal sector, given that the drug trade for cocaine and mari- STYLES OF LEISURE, juana is illegal and has developed a violent style of trafficking. DRUG USE AND This very risky economic activity, which is fatal for most young TRAFFICKING people who join the drug gangs, has also prospered inside a hierarchical and ruthless fluid organisation and should not be Alba Zaluar equated to a "survival strategy".

At the macro social plane, despite intense debates, there has been a certain agreement that post-war society has been subjected to an accelerated process of economic, political and cultural transformations,the central points of which would be social fragmentation and the increasing importance granted to leisure Introduction and consumption activities as means of defining new social identities.As a result,gambling,drug use and pleasure-seeking activ- This chapter discusses the present view on crime and vio- ities have become most important for many people, especially lence in Brazilian cities, specifically in Rio de Janeiro, considered the younger ones.This makes the businesses that exploit their il- as one of the most violent cities in the country.This perception legal consumption highly profitable. Inside the globalised net- derives from the supposedly mounting poverty and inequality works of business crime, those who are in strategic positions in that would account for violent crimes such as homicides,as well the large ring of transnational connections may profit quickly as as crimes against property.However,one cannot understand the a result of a combination of none or few institutional limits, and tremendous increase in the rates of crimes, especially homicide, the use of violent ways of conflict adjustments(1).This prosperous (1) All over the world, the existence of prohibiting without linking it to drug trafficking at the local and transna- sector of world economy constitutes the illegal production and laws and of strong moral censorship inflicted on tional level.This assertion is mainly supported by fieldwork redistribution of goods and services that are part of the "mass con- such activities compels organisations that are un- search that I undertook during the eighties and nineties in poor sumption of style"(2).Besides,Mafiosi contracts damage third par- derground to react violently in commercial or pri- neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro where most crimes are related ties and,although they may avoid conflicts,are based on the par- vate disputes (threats, intimidation, blackmail, extortion) or in the conflict resolution (aggressions, to personal and commercial conflicts involving people who were ticipant’s instrumental interests.The relationships of personal loy- murders, terrorism). connected to drug dealing gangs (Zaluar, 1994). Statistical data alty are not the outcome of a personal free act, but are forced (2) Style is a concept used for substituting culture from other studies in Brazil (Adorno 1990; Zaluar et alii, 1995; upon mainly by the threat or use of physical violence.A chief may and subculture, which have theoretical conse- Soares et alii 1996; Beato et alii, 2000) are not yet conclusive, be magnanimous sometimes, depending on the whims and quences inapplicable in times of very rapid changes in social identities and practices. Used first at the though they all point to high proportions of homicides related caprices of his personal power.Yet, the mixture of fear, respect Centre of Cultural Studies of Birmingham to desig- to drug dealing (from 25% up to 52%). and affection that surround him does not cancel the despotic nate what was called "youth culture",style then be- trait of his power, for it nullifies his subjects’autonomy. came the most suitable term to characterise the Assuming that many poor young men have been in a state of swift and transitory novelties in music,clothing,art, and language fashions,and other juvenile behaviour vulnerability as a consequence of crisis within families,estrange- Since social, economic and institutional inequality remains, that could no longer be exclusively interpreted on ment between adults and youths,an inefficient school system,a these new globalised forms of business configure a perverse so- the holistic perspective of religion or of class culture, lack of professional training,and insufficient employment possi- cial and economic integration for those who suffer exclusion.The although not entirely disconnected with them (Hall, bilities,I will present arguments that further the idea of "perverse question yet to be properly discussed is how the effects of 1980). Now they are part of the market of symbolic or cultural goods in the so called "consumer society" integration" (Castels, 1998: 166-180) already discussed in a previ- poverty and accelerated urbanisation or immigration are linked (Featherstone, 1995: 36-44). ous paper (Zaluar, 2000). In it I argued that changes in the infor- to the presence of networks(3) and fluxes of more or less organ-

NEXT 31 Chapter 2 ised crime(4) (Schiray,1994).Although poverty and accelerated ur- cidence of some crimes observed in three districts of Rio de banisation are clearly connected consequences and causes of ex- Janeiro, i.e., the style of trafficking would be a determinant.Data clusion, organised crime cross all social classes, have bonds with on crimes were those known to be connected to organised organised legal business and do not survive without institutional crime, such as robberies and thefts (for paying debts users have support from state agencies. By studying the networks that link with dealers) or homicides,which may be,and often are,forms of legal and illegal business, one can finally connect the micro and internal conflict resolution,especially in what has been called sys- the macro dimensions, and the local and the global levels of temic homicides (Beato et al, 2000).The research team(5) studied transnational narcotics economy in which poor people work per- trafficking styles and networks in each of these districts, which ilously at the retail trade in order to assure the enormous profits were chosen because they had several legal establishments for obtained at superior nodes of the wholesale trade. The latter bohemian life and many shanty towns (favelas), besides signifi- (3) The concept of network is used in two ways in studies concerning drug traffic nowadays. Firstly, it thrive on the risky and many times fatal activity of those small cant socio-economic differences. In them, links between favela is anchored in the concepts of territoriality and hi- dealers. and "asphalt" dealers, as well as users and traffickers were ob- erarchy with which Geography has envisaged inter- served, that is, the research had a qualitative more than quanti- national, national and regional cities in order to Because of the very high prices of illegal drugs,which,in the tative character. study the flux of information and products that pass from one to the others through knots and strategic case of cocaine,is more expensive than gold as soon as it pene- points of interconnections. Secondly, closer to the trates Brazilian territory,their trade has become a source of enor- According to the 1991 Census,Rio de Janeiro had 570 favelas anthropological concept of social network,it is used mous and rapid profits, as well as great violence.The demand spread all over its territory where 16,1% of the total population to study and understand the illegal activities that that guarantees high profits is created by changes in lifestyles of the city lived. Inside favelas, population density is 341 inhabi- function as a continuous flow of interpersonal relationships based on secrecy and trust always under associated with individual consumption,which is characterised tants per ha., that is eight times the mean density of the city. proof, in other words, on knowledge and vigilance by style consumption (including the use of illegal drugs) and During the eighties,traffickers succeed in taking over local power people have of each other as well as taken for which is more expensive than post-war family consumption due in most of them,ousting dwellers’association leaders and union granted arrangements and rules between them. In to the comfortable domestic patterns of middle class families. leaders who were important before (Zaluar, 1994). this second meaning,it applies notably to the lower levels of drug dealing that have an intricate and de- Such changes in consumer habits have been partly accompa- centralised web hardly controlled,contrary to what nied by new conceptions of work and suffering,leisure and plea- Since the late seventies, there have been two contending happens with the wholesalers and financiers of the sure. Furthermore, these changes have taken place simultane- criminal rings or "organisations" that linked several favelas,split- traffic,who tend to create centralisation and hierar- ously with the impressive increase in certain crimes "against ting their residents into friends and enemies:Comando Vermelho chy in Cartels e Mafia (UNDCP, 1997). (4) The concept of organised crime is entangled property" — thefts and mugging — as well as "against life" — and Terceiro Comando. Despite the label of organisations, from with the concept of Mafia and has been the object aggressions and homicides (UNDCP, 1997). However, the local the business point of view, "commandos" have been in fact hor- of an unfinished debate which started during the and micro mechanism by which this has come about is yet to be izontal reciprocity networks through which gangs in each favela last century:the former referring to its organised or properly studied. help one another to acquire drugs and guns when they lack disorganised character,and the latter pointing to its condition of crime, work or enterprise. In any case, them. Nowadays there are four rings —Comando Vermelho, there is no doubt that one is dealing with a set of ac- Comando Vermelho Jovem, Amigos dos Amigos and Terceiro tivities spread in networks that have components of The Research Comando — but the former enmity is still the most severe. economic endeavour, that is, it needs repetitive ac- Although "commandos" are not family business and have no big tivities, (though without the discipline, regularity and rights of regular work), a goal of which is profit The main hypothesis was based on the interactive character chief,their networks are not always horizontal.There is a great in- (easier and higher the better at the wholesale net- of circuits, networks, leisure styles and more diffuse social pro- equality in it in regard to power relations and division of profits. works), using variable methods and currencies for cesses that culminate in a criminal activity — drug trafficking — The drug trafficking organisation (criminal gangs or quadrilhas) exchanges typical of underground relationships. as business, that is, accomplished in some form of organisation inside the favelas is simple:there is an "owner of the outlet" (dono (5) The research team included undergraduate and graduate students under my supervision at NUPEVI. that at retail level may be regular or irregular, a way of life or of da boca de fumo) or "the trafficker" (o traficante), two or more Funds came from the Ministry of Justice, Brazilian enrichment, as well as an intermittent, temporary or permanent "managers", one for marijuana another for cocaine, and several Federal Government, and NUSEG, Government of activity.These different forms could be related to the distinct in- more or less important middlemen,some of whom are employed the State of Rio de Janeiro. FORMER NEXT 32 Chapter 2 (bookkeepers,"vapours","soldiers"),and many "little aeroplanes" The other main discovery was that criminality incidences in (go-between sellers), the first getting variable salaries or differ- the three districts could not be explained either by socio-eco- ent percentages on the sales, the latter just a small part of the nomic data or by anomie.Crimes against property (robberies and drug they get to sell elsewhere at a higher price.Where the po- assaults), which are related to the victims’ richness, and crimes litical and military process has been accomplished,the chief "traf- against people (homicides) related to poverty, reach their high- ficker" becomes "the owner of the hill" (o dono do morro),another est rates in Madureira, the district with the poorest population. name for shantytown. Copacabana has a homicide rate of 8.8 per 100.000 inhabitants, whereas Tijuca and Madureira have around 21 and 34 respec- Still, in their interviews, youngsters mentioned that the tively.Thefts occur in greater number in Copacabana,but are also quadrilhas provided more security for their members; since they very high in Madureira.Yet, Copacabana is the district that pre- assure juridical assistance that increases the chance of not being sents the highest income layers: 65% of the heads of families sentenced the higher the youngster is in the organised crime hi- earning middle and upper incomes, 40,58% at three highest in- erarchy.Since money can buy defence,and guns offer the protec- come layers and only 11% below the poverty line (two minimum tion that emerges from fear, it is rational to practice more and wages). Tijuca, although less rich than Copacabana, has an in- more crimes in order to always have money,guns and the respect come distribution concentrated on the medium layers: 59% of as well as the protection of the gang.Actually,their preference for the heads of families earning middle and upper incomes,35,44% armed robbery is explained by the fact that they can silence pos- at three highest income layers, 17,2% below the poverty line. sible witnesses by terror,inflict fearful respect on accomplices and Madureira displays a contrasting income distribution:40% of the offer the gun as a "treat" to the policemen, multiple ways of es- heads of domiciles have income below poverty line, 33% earn caping arrest and making condemnation more difficult,as I anal- more than two till five minimum wages, only 22% have middle yse in another text of this review. Anyhow, such calculation may and high earnings, of which just 5,4% are in the highest layers. prove ineffective in so far as it does not eliminate the fact that a Inequality,then,is smaller in Madureira than in the other two dis- poor bandit may be beaten up, tortured or extorted for a sum of tricts,for there are fewer rich people living close to poor people. money he cannot provide. His gun and the stolen goods may be Thus, in Madureira the poor steal, rob or kill other poor. removed from him and yet he may be arrested if the policemen prefer to increase their bets in the corruption game or to do their On the other hand,Copacabana has the bigger contingent of job right.He may also be accused of crimes he did not commit as old people (25%) in the city,although its population amounts to a way of speeding the "solution" of crimes.There are work pres- half the population of Madureira: 43 thousand people with 60 sures and efficiency orientations inside the institution along with years or more out of a population of 170 thousand. Adults sum the secular practices of violence and corruption.Cases of "revolt", 41%.Young people — from zero to 29 years old — amount to that is, the decision to take up guns and follow criminal careers, 33%.This could explain why the district has the highest rate of were due to these perilous encounters with policemen. thefts since preferential victims of this crime are old people. Tijuca is again well balanced in terms of age distribution for it is However, during the fieldwork research we discovered that a residential district: 40% are young people, 40% are adults and dealers,especially in Copacabana,were not limited to young men 20% are 60 years old or more. Madureira presents a picture ac- from favelas, supposedly the only poor enough to be attracted cording to its poverty: 47% out of 373 thousand dwellers have by this survival strategy.Women (manicures,prostitutes,shop at- from zero to 29 years old, 23% of which are children and adoles- tendants), as well as adult workers of the services sector (street cents between zero and 14 years old,that is four times more than vendors, taxi drivers, doormen, and even tradesmen or shop- Copacabana; adults correspond to 40% of the total and old peo- keepers) also sell illegal drugs to customers. ple 13%.That is, there is more need to educate and entertain the young ones in the district of Madureira.

FORMER NEXT 33 Chapter 2 Despite its old population, Copacabana is far from being a those youths, as they hardly can go outside the gang controlled conservative or conventional district. On the contrary, it is the turf,the district is divided between "friends" and "Germans".They most important tourist and bohemian centre of the city. can only go to the areas with the same or allied commandos. Anonymity,cosmopolite ethos and tolerance,besides license,distinguish the district since the beginning because people of dif- But there are big differences in terms of the youth style chosen. ferent ages,sexual options,ethnic groups,races and social classes Although charm and funk are musical styles copied from Afro- meet in the same space.Many foreigners from other parts of the American music since the end of the seventies,dressing and danc- city, the country and the world go there in order to have fun. ing styles at charm are very different.At charm balls there is no vio- Prostitutes, in hundreds of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and lence and no drugs inside the clubs.The youths view themselves as kiosks, offer sex and drugs. Numerous dealers ("vapours" and fantastic dancers and music aficionados who dress elegantly in a "aeroplanes") and numerous drug users cross the streets search- conservative style as a way of marking contrasts with funk fans.To ing for varied fun. the charm balls go people from different generations and social layers, what does not happen at funk balls.Thus, there is some so- Tijuca has always been mainly a residential and familial dis- cial control inside them wielded by adults over youths, what is an trict.Despite the three important samba schools that make their antidote to the strong and closed loyalties one finds within youth festivals there, there is no agitated nightlife in it, nor anonymity groups,such as gangs and galères.People who go to charm balls are is part of its style.It is a district known for its conservative popu- more oriented to work and do not adhere to gangs, although the lation. There is a provincial atmosphere in its quiet streets at social identity acquired in this leisure activity is also very important night,except in the points the youths have chosen for their meet- to them. ings. Still, it is considered one of the most violent districts in the city.During the eighties there was a boom of musical bars,a char- On the contrary, galères are constitutive of funk balls. acteristic of the district as well as a boom of cocaine use, what Divisions between sides A and B entice disputes in dancing and could easily spread for it has 13 favelas very close to each other. violent fighting inside the room during the ball.Their customers In all its hills there are irregular dwellings with traffickers domi- are younger and have no strong links with work, school or pro- nating them. Since they are close to each other and the traffick- fession.They develop the masculinity ethos asserted by the lyrics ers belong to different commandos, it is impossible to go any- of their music and the DJ’s speeches that encourage them to where without concern.Thus,men who live in one favela cannot show prowess during the balls, enough to fight till death if go anymore to the samba parties (pagodes), funk balls or samba needed. During the balls, despite prohibition, 15 minutes of fun, rehearsals in another one if they belong to enemy "commandos". that is 15 minutes of blood thirst fighting,are allowed.Thus,they To do otherwise may mean the death of the young trespasser become an indirect form linking youth violence to illegal drug looking for fun. commerce, in as much as they share the values and practices of the warriors’ethos (Elias & Dunning,1993:138) that link symboli- In Madureira, illegal drugs are not so visible and easy to get cally male pride and dominated turf. outside the favelas. One cannot stroll in its streets either. People walk with a known place to go.The streets,and not only the fave- The presence and sometimes the interference of traffickers las, have been militarily divided by the commandos that control are easily detected in funk balls, more so in those called "com- the hills where irregular dwellings are.One needs much attention munity balls" because they are performed inside a favela al- not to fall in the hands of enemies or, as they say, "Germans". lowed and financed by "the trafficker". The use of the local Besides, the streets have little light and patrolling. Preferential dwellers’ association is necessary for the official permission leisure activities for youths are charm balls at the clubs, samba given by the Military Police. The "association", in fact already parties at the schools of samba and funk balls at the favelas.For controlled by traffickers, also engages disc jockeys and other

FORMER NEXT 34 Chapter 2 members of the technical team.There is less tension and con- higher:from five up to ten times.The variation is linked to the oc- flicts in this ball because everyone knows each other and be- casional gap between offer and demand. longs to the same commando.The DJ on the other hand may find himself in difficult situations suffering constrictions from In the second ring - the one that runs in leisure and prostitu- "the owner" and from corrupt policemen,sometimes risking his tion locations - the majority of illegal drug dealings are ordered own life. previously, since "vapours" and "aeroplanes" avoid carrying the goods.The "vapour" receives the request and goes to the place Despite many distinctions found in the leisure circuits, drug where the drug is hidden,whereas the "aeroplanes" have to steer consumers were not distinguished due to different styles of con- towards the hills where they get cheaper prices for purer drugs. sumption. In all these districts, they showed themselves con- Nevertheless,customers do not fear cheating so much since this cerned with privacy and discreet use so as not "give themselves is not very common between people who already know each away" nor frightening other customers of the same bohemian es- other.Trust serves both parts that need to maintain transactions. tablishments. Police repression and the fear of having their ad- Swindlers are indicated and quickly lose credibility. In this ring diction known by their families and neighbours,especially in the there are also dealers who employ the phone call system, at- districts where social networks are closely knitted, may explain tending their customers by request made by phone to the flats this caution.Thus users try not to exceed the dose so as not be where they live.They do not stay in the streets. "easily spotted":eyes wide open,agitation,loss of oneself control and so on.In fact the style of use observed in public spaces where This is one style that contrasts with those found in the other youths and adults have fun within the three districts could be de- districts.Anyhow,this is not a feature of all parts of Copacabana. scribed as predominantly of social use.At kiosks,restaurants,bars In another area,closer to one of its favelas,differently,there is an and wine-cellars, users’ controlled behaviours are much valued intense sociability and interaction between users from the "as- by all,including the local traffickers themselves.This is not to say phalt" and traffickers from the favela,as it is common in many ar- that there are no heavy users,but they may have serious difficul- eas of Tijuca and everywhere in Madureira. At this particular ties in their relationships with other users and dealers at public point, the style of trafficking is not so quiet, cautious and peace- points due to the disturbances they may cause,either because of ful; in it one can observe the same violent dynamics that arises police surveillance or because of increasing debts with dealers. from territory control found in the two other districts where In those places, use is simplified, agile and adapted to urban there is a constant overflowing from the traffickers’ turf inside rhythm, all transactions occurring quickly so as not to be seen. favelas to the rest of the district.Yet, since in Copacabana this is limited to a few streets very close to a particular favela, it is not Copacabana has at least three different trafficking rings surprising that the district presents a much smaller homicide rate linked to the bohemian places:1) the sea edge;2) the night clubs than the other two. and prostitution circuit; 3) the restaurants, bars and wine-cellars close to one of the shanty towns where a big trading point exists. Tijuca exhibits a peculiar geography for its streets are inside In the first two settings "vapours", as their name implies, are in valleys surrounded by many hills.This feature has benefited those constant movement, never stopping for a long time in the same who deal illegal drugs there. Social differences between ur- place,"evaporating" when necessary as a consequence of police banised areas and the several favelas disappear when we enter control, despite the collusion scheme with some of them, or in the world of illegal drugs. Users from "asphalt" stroll more easily search of new customers.In these rings they are much more dis- up the hills where they go to buy directly in the fixed selling place creet than at the one near the accesses of favelas or nearby a better and cheaper drug, although taking more risks than the streets in the districts of Tijuca and Madureira.In the main streets middle class customers in Copacabana who buy at "the tracks". or,as they say "at the tracks" (na pista),prices remain several times Users, no matter the degree of addiction, have to calculate the

FORMER NEXT 35 Chapter 2 risks that ensues from police repression and corruption,which go in the streets as middleman may call the attention of traffickers side-by-side in favelas and nearby streets,as well as the dangers or of policemen.Then "the guy is marked" and his situation "be- resulting from the transactions with dealers of the hills.Of the lat- comes sinister". He either kills for not being killed or leaves the ter they say: "one must know how to enter and how to leave the district, even the city.He must "disappear". dealing with them in order not to loose one’s life". The style of trafficking in Tijuca, as well as in Madureira, is Besides, shanty town’s traffickers rule more easily over the therefore one directly controlled by favela traffickers who make streets of Tijuca,either as a way of hampering independent deal- constant shootings to guarantee turf or monopoly over comers to sell drugs there, or as a way of showing their fire power. It merce, and to halt legal repression. For this, they threaten pos- is common to see armed traffickers walking by.When the "owner sible competitors,violently coerce debtors,make fragile agree- of the hills" spots an unauthorised vendor,they are threatened.If ments with the policemen who extort them,and intimidate wit- they insist,competing with the criminal gang,they are killed.It is nesses.There is a militarised control of the area more clearly as- necessary to have respect and permission from the owner to sell sociated to local metaphoric expressions of maleness.This style drugs in Tijuca.Because the hills are so close to each other across diverges with the one predominant in Copacabana, i.e., a dis- the narrow gulfs where "asphalt" housing is,gang warfare and in- creet style where the dealers assume they are clandestine and termittent shootings invade the houses inside and outside the cannot control territories. favelas.They shatter the tranquillity of this conservative and familiar district.Sometime the shots reach the houses and kill peo- In Madureira,it is common to see people smoking,sniffing or ple who watch television or sleep. selling marijuana and cocaine in strategic points inside favelas and in the "asphalt".As a matter of fact,there is no clear-cut divi- Easy access to the hills intensifies drug retail commerce there. sion between these areas and no prejudice against shantytown However it does not stop dealings in bars and corners for "one dwellers (favelados), for most people are poor. Anyone may ac- sells drugs everywhere". Some bars are well known as selling quire drugs up in the hills without suspicion. In this district the places where brokers go back and forth the hills bringing drugs edges between trafficking networks and leisure styles are fluid. to their customers.Those who climb the hills assume the risks but The major and dreadful split is the one related to the "comman- take advantages at the same time,though they do not profit very dos". Hence, access to drugs does not depend on middlemen much.They form a stable group of people who gained reliance who buy them in the favelas.Because there are no clear limits to from the "owner" or his "managers",a condition they call "having the latter, users say they have no need for them as it happens reputation".They buy previously a certain amount of drugs in or- elsewhere.Usually users openly consume the drugs at the same der to sell them at a higher price in bohemian settings. When place they buy them, in a small alley inside the favela or in a they acquire drugs frequently for paying later, they become nearby street, avoiding a flagrant delit. As for the price, in "aeroplanes".In this case,trust is even greater and,in the process Madureira cocaine and marijuana are eight or ten times cheaper of gaining respect and consideration from the owner, they buy than at the "tracks" in Copacabana. However, users likewise talk increasing quantities of drugs and may achieve the status of about the tension that exists when buying directly from the traf- "vapours”.Simultaneously, they are compelled to engage in- ficker.They equally mention the trafficker’s truculence and their creasingly in other criminal activities of the gang and may get en- need to submit to his dictates so as not risking their own lives. tangled in mortal conflicts.From their point of view,the ideal situation would be to remain as someone that has consideration, Some favelados say it is impossible not to meddle in the friendship and respect but does not get involved, nor becomes gangs’occasional transactions,refusing common invitations to "enemy", "dog", "weak head" as other dealers do. Equally, one participate in parties, barbecues, and balls. Others wish to re- should not be very ambitious,because gaining too much money main as persons deserving consideration and respect in order

FORMER NEXT 36 Chapter 2 to sell increasing portions of the drug during a limited period ing appeal to violence in such places. For youths have been of time.They dream of gaining some money, leaving the illegal partly socialised in this figuration (Elias & Dunning,1993:10-11) dealing to open a legal small business.Yet,all agree that no one sharing their codes through which they search respect,reputa- is forced to enter the gang.The youth offers himself showing tion and consideration from members of the traffic gang.Many loyalty and "disposition to kill", another way of acquiring re- think this social context is a natural and eternal component of spect and trust. If he is good at shooting, he becomes a soldier social interaction. Several have friends or relatives who have and a member of the gang that dominates the hill. been part of the traffic networks. Since these youths try not to breach its main rules, they become conformists and lose au- From the military point of view, antagonistic "commandos" tonomy, and are therefore called "guided by remote control" compete violently for turf or business control, and prohibit peo- (teleguiados). ple that live in areas dominated by their enemies to trespass their territories,sometimes even for simple visits to friends or relatives. Yet, some older people in Madureira and Tijuca feel they Because of this,favelados in Tijuca and Madureira refer to an "un- should maintain a distance vis-à-vis gang members. One hears ending war" that engages traffickers belonging to belligerent commonly sentences such as "they respect us and do not impose commandos or that involves policemen and traffickers. In this themselves on us" or "we do not convene with these boys" from war,not only gang members,but also young men who live in the neighbours who belong to traditional samba schools,some reli- same or in friendly favelas,are compelled to help whenever ene- gious groups or have clear work orientations.This speech also mies attack another gang in the same commando.The recruits comes from people who are long time dwellers and have seen then form a band (called bonde or "bond") that will respond to the changes that deeply affected social relationships inside the the attack of the other band likewise formed. family and the neighbourhood.They tend to have leisure styles that integrate several generations,that is,they have their children When there is draft of "soldiers" for the traffic,it is directed to and grandchildren under their control during some activities. the youngsters who have managed to override the regulations Usually they just prohibit dealers of selling drugs or exhibiting now existing in the Brazilian Army that avoid recruits from fave- guns in at their doors where children play,as a way of pointing to las.They have been officially trained as soldiers in the military ser- the difference between them.They are the ones who resist in- vice,which is still obligatory.Even when they are not members of timidation and forceful agreements with the latter.Such attitudes traffic gangs, these youngsters are "invited" to mount and dis- in fact stress the tradition and respectability of the neighbour- mount guns, train new soldiers, confront enemies when the hood in comparison with others. favela where they live is invaded by the police or a rival gang. They must accept the "invitation" not so much because they are Unfortunately, they have not yet been granted support from coerced to do so but because they feel they should collaborate governmental agencies nor the police.However,several govern- with the gang that controls the neighbourhood where they live. mental and non- governmental organizations have established Anyhow, they know that, in the case of refusal, they will face new projects, or supported their voluntary neighbourhood as- moral and physical problems.They will lose reputation and re- sociations to attend youngsters who have problems at school or spect from the "owner of the hill",they may be expelled from the at home. As yet, no projects have envisaged the pacification of favela or,worse,they may be executed.Sometimes they are even gang warfare or the troubled young men who live at the cutting "invited" to form the "bonds" that are going to invade enemy edge, killing and being killed because of it. neighbourhoods.

This is the context of a masculine warrior ethos bred in traffic gangs,in which boys grow.It helps to understand the grow-

FORMER NEXT 37 Chapter 2 Bibliography

ADORNO, S.1990.Violência urbana,justiça criminal e organização social do crime Núcleo de Estudos da Violência da USP: São Paulo.

BEATO, C.; ASSUNÇÃO, R.2000."Homicide Clusters and Drug Traffic in Belo Horizonte from 1995 to 1999".Anais da 24a Reunião da ANPOCS: São Paulo.

CASTELS, M.1998.End of Millennium.Blackwell: Oxford.

ELIAS,N.& DUNNING,E.1993.Quest for Excitement,Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process. Blackwell: Oxford.

FEATHERSTONE, M.1995.Undoing Culture,Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity.Sage: London.

HALL, S.1980.Resistance through Rituals.Hutchinson, CCCs: Birmingham.

SCHIRAY, M..1994."Les filières-stupéfiants: trois niveaux, cinq logiques".Futuribles, 185: Paris.

SOARES, L. E.; Sé, JOÃO T.S; RODRIGUES, J.A.S.; Piquet Carneiro, L.1996.Violência e Política no Rio de Janeiro.Editora Relume Dumará: Rio de Janeiro.

UNDCP 1997.World Drug Report.Oxford University Press: London.

ZALUAR,A.,ALBUQUERQUE,C.& NORONHA, J.C.1995: "Pobreza não gera violência".Ciência Hoje, 20/ 115: Rio de Janeiro. ZALUAR, A.1994.Condomínio do Diabo.Editora da UFRJ: Rio de Janeiro. ZALUAR, A.2000."Perverse Integration: Drug trafficking and youth in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro".Journal of International Affairs, 53/2: 654-671.

FORMER

38 Chapter 2 - Bibliography Chapter 3 jection, or can be ambiguous, according to how close ordinary THE SOCIAL people are to the traffickers, and also to how long such traffick- CONSTRUCTION OF ers have been active in a given community.As for the political as- THE IDENTITY OF THE pect, each producing or transit country has had different types TRAFFICKER of relations with the drug-trafficking field and its main social agents.These can involve subordination and relative autonomy Luis Astorga on the part of traffickers with regard to the State, or independence and confrontation with the State at all levels. And in the field of symbolic production,the traffickers’own social development,the perception of their activities and of their tastes and values,and lastly of their ethics,aesthetics and mythology,have also been reflected differently,with varying intensity and via different media, according to the society concerned.

The objective of this chapter is to describe the origin, development and characteristics of the symbolic production around illegal drug trafficking and traffickers, from both outside and inside the field in the case of Mexico. It is in this area of symbolic production that legal and physical confrontations between traf- Introduction fickers and authorities — or cooperation between them — are reconstructed in the discourse,and that the meaning of these re- The era that began early in the 20th century,with the prohibi- lations is prepared. It is here that the categories and patterns of tion of drugs such as opiates marijuana and cocaine, created a perception that enable social agents to find their place in the new group of social agents — the traffickers.Nearly a century has world are synthesised,that social agents find their reason for ex- passed since then, during which the identity and characteristics isting and that they build and rebuild their identity.The legiti- of traffickers have been acquiring shape,and they have come to macy of the authorities’position has made it possible for them to constitute groups that are more or less extensive and consoli- create over time a universe of meaning that classifies traffickers dated and have more or less influence in various fields, accord- and attributes certain characteristics to them.Consequently,they ing to the given society. As their activities are illegal, they have judge the traffickers according to experience,suppositions,prej- broken the established laws governing life in society.In the eco- udice and the values shared by certain social groups,or the laws nomic sphere they have shown entrepreneurial skill, although in force in a particular society.They also rely on the appropriate methods used by some groups to arrive at their ends in recycling media to disseminate their symbolic production. It is difficult to their earnings in the legal economy have sometimes been vio- obtain any direct information as to how traffickers perceive their lent. Force — and even armed force — has been used in some business and how they see themselves, given the illegality of fields of the economy in some countries.Traffickers have also re- their activities.Access to their symbolic production is always par- sorted to bribing social agents responsible for law enforcement tial and fragmentary. It is easier to find out what is said about in different fields involved in the success of their activities.As for them in the "legal" world than to obtain voluntary testimonials ethics, the traffickers’ values system places gain above all and at from traffickers giving their view of the field in which they oper- any cost, and lawbreaking and contempt for the lives of others ate and of their relations with other fields.This methodological above values that make for a peaceful life in society.In the social difficulty leads us to seek other media in which much might be field, perceptions of their activities include acceptance and re- reflected of their special way of seeing the world. In the case of

NEXT 39 Chapter 3 Mexico,one very useful symbolic production for approaching the field of action and of themselves from their position as active so- traffickers’world view is the corrido,which is oral history in verse cial agents would generally be confined to their own universe put to music,and a grassroots tradition that has been preserved and would rarely transcend this. through the ages(1). In the early years of prohibition, which had different stages (marijuana, 1920 and opium poppy, 1926), individuals trafficking Historical Context in illegal drugs came from different social categories and classes. They were mainly peasants from the mountains, which was Traffickers in illegal drugs emerged as a social category at the where most of the forbidden crops were grown, and traders of very moment when trading in certain drugs became a criminal various levels in the country and city who stored the production activity and when laws were issued banning such commerce and and acted as intermediaries between the producers themselves establishing penalties for offenders.This initial division between and distributors in the United States.The United States market what was good and bad,permitted and forbidden and legal and was where the demand was greatest, and what made the busi- illegal was the point of departure for the creation of arguments ness so profitable. In the country, the peasants who sowed the justifying the new measures and condemning those who did not opium poppy, or later marijuana, often knew nothing about the respect them. Because prohibition was an act by the State that prohibitions.They lived in zones where State presence was prac- had permanent validity in a given territory, the legitimate social tically non-existent and the only law was that of survival. In ad- agents in charge of preparing and applying these laws were le- dition, the producer was not necessarily the person who mar- gal specialists,legislators,politicians and the police.Certain jour- keted his harvest in the cities, or the person who took care of its nalists did help, however, with the groundwork for the creation transport to the frontier or smuggled it into the United States.He and application of prohibitionist laws by reproducing and dis- was a link in the chain,attached to the earth and the person who seminating State arguments,and even adding some of their own. earned the least, although profits were higher than for the legal On the one hand lay the offending substance — one of a num- crops that continued to be part of his family economy and were ber of drugs to which negative properties were attributed.On the necessary for survival. After a time, certain rural traffickers who other lay the activities that enabled such drugs to be produced had more business flair and were not too worried about legal and marketed. Lastly, there were the social agents who carried repercussions started to specialise in these forbidden crops and out these unlawful activities and were therefore the object of a took over the other stages, ranging from commercialisation to social declassifying and reclassifying process.They stopped be- the final market.In their places of origin,entire families opted for ing what they had been and became criminals.The entry into the illegality.They focused their skills on illegal crops and became world of these offenders required the transformation of the per- professional suppliers. They accumulated wealth and regional sonal attributes that had characterised the same social agents power,while all the time they were tolerated,watched over,con- when they had been legitimate.The stigma of their new condi- tained and protected by the local and federal authorities(2).The tion was established as the dominant value.The authorities and urban intermediaries did not disappear, although some of them the communication media that served them took care to rein- only stayed in illegal trafficking long enough to accumulate some force those attributes valued negatively by legitimate society. capital and invest it in legitimate business, or reinvest it in busi- (1) See Luis Astorga, Mitología del "narcotraficante" en México, Mexico, UNAM-Plaza y Valdés, 1995. Thus, with time there would exist a long list of descriptions that nesses that they had already been developing before they had (2) For further details on this aspect see Luis Astorga, would serve to identify them publicly.These constituted value ventured outside the law.Since they were connected with trade, Organized Crime and the Organization of Crime in judgements that would place traffickers in opposition to domi- legitimate agriculture for export and politics — particularly in John Baily and Roy Godson (editors), Organized nant ethical codes,and interpretations of their origins,intentions Sinaloa — the traffickers were known, but at the same time "in- Crime and Democratic Governability: Mexico and the US — Mexican Borderlands, University of Pittsburgh and ways of life. They were named, classified and interpreted visible" because of their situation in the social hierarchy and their Press, 2000, pp.58-82. from outside their own world,but their own perceptions of their protection networks. Attention focused on the originally rural

FORMER NEXT 40 Chapter 3 traffickers who had settled on the outskirts of Culiacán, the cap- be a business like any other. Moreover, this was an activity that ital of the state.There they recreated the lifestyle of the moun- representatives of the law, who were supposed to do their duty, tains, of regions forgotten by the State in terms of infrastructure fought against or protected according to the occasion and how or productive investment and where representatives of the law it suited them.Why,then,should prohibition be respected when were permanently absent. Personal and business differences in practice the authorities themselves had no firm position, and were not settled by legal institutions,and even less so when such when the drawbacks connected with consumption were sym- activities were unlawful. Gun battles were frequent and the law bolic in terms of the local population? Even the violence levels of the mountains reigned,which meant the law of the strongest during the early years of the business were fairly insignificant.The and fastest to draw his gun.If they were "wanted" by the law,they idea had not yet become widespread that the business had to be could always escape to the mountains, which was their natural defended with shoot-outs against anything representing an ob- territory and where it was difficult to capture them.The traffick- stacle, including representatives of the law whose role it was to ers’ professional activity and their frequent use of armed vio- combat traffickers. On the one hand, there were social agents lence, mainly among themselves, were the features that distin- whose ethical inclinations broke with the established legal guished the district of Tierra Blanca where they settled in the framework, but they were ready to accept the risks in a tolerant early years of their move from the country to the city.Or at least, society where, apart from the government, there was no organ- those were the aspects identified by people who lived elsewhere. ised force recognised as a permanent moral force opposed to il- In the city, and in that district in particular, people uninvolved in legal business.There is no evidence that the Church played such the illegal trade appeared to have no great problems in coexist- a role. On the other hand, there exist testimonials from people ing with the traffickers.After all,the traffickers were not promot- who in their time held government posts and who admit that the ing the market locally or obliging anyone to participate in the authorities knew about the traffickers, and knew perfectly well business and they were still only killing each other.Value judge- who they were and where they lived(3). Moreover, they were ments by law-abiders were not absolute. They could change, friendly with some of them,and did not suffer any moral conflict above all in private life,if the conditions implicit in tolerance were as a result. Apparently even government officers were fairly un- broken.The laws and discourse of the authorities were seen to be convinced by the content of the prohibitionist laws. too rigid when attempts were made to apply them in everyday life.The trafficker was not a complete stranger.He could even be According to the authorities and the press, traffickers were a neighbour, friend or relation.The city was still relatively small marginal beings whose low passions or poverty levels had led and it was fairly easy to know about a person’s background and them to such illegal activities. In reality, not all traffickers were activities.In practice,the authorities themselves were more flex- poor; and their activities were not completely marginal. The ible and did not consider traffickers a danger to society. drug-trafficking business was linked with and dependent on the political authorities from the outset.The lowest links in the It is important to stress the "naturalisation" of the drug-traf- hierarchy of the drug-trafficking field served as the raw mate- ficking phenomenon that took place in certain parts of Mexico, rial for the social construction of the archetypal trafficker.Those especially in states where illegal crops began to be grown very higher up the scale passed unnoticed, since they were known early on, before the prohibition orders. Before large-scale pro- for their legal activities.As a result,official declarations and sus- duction for export, there were no widespread social uses of for- picions voiced in newspaper articles never actually named bidden drugs.This was a factor that helped to make ethical atti- highly placed members of legitimate society.The lower-classed tudes more flexible, both among people who were in favour of trafficker had a first name, a family name and an alias, as de- the illegal business and in other groups in society.It was difficult manded by the criteria of traditional criminology. His equiva- (3) See Manuel Lazcano Ochoa, Una vida en la vida sinaloense, Los Mochis, Sinaloa,Talleres Gráficos de to understand why the State was banning something that had lent in the higher social strata was only mentioned by his legal la Universidad de Occidente, 1992, pp.203-208. almost no effect on the local population — something that could activity as a trader,politician,army officer or member of the pro-

FORMER NEXT 41 Chapter 3 fessions. There was a kind of tacit agreement not to point at trafficking field, with its own categories of perception, its own people in same social class as government officials and jour- classification systems and its own values.The word was stigmatic nalists. Exceptions regarding government officials came from or emblematic according to the field in which it was used. the United States authorities and as a result of internal strug- Without even realizing it,traffickers were just starting on the so- gles among the political elite in power(4). For people at the top cial construction of their own group identity. of the social pyramid, this was just another business opportunity available to people in power,and a minor deviation judged Alcohol smuggling in the United States produced organised by their peers according to a double standard.For people at the gangs that specialised in the business and whose fame crossed bottom, however, the results were a public seal of disapproval national frontiers. Al Capone and his gangsters became models for life, a stigma and a social destiny. to be imitated by other criminals.In their turn,journalists writing about crime also had Al Capone and his gang in mind when des- It is not known whether texts exist containing the language ignating leaders and gangs engaged in other unlawful activities. used by traffickers in referring to themselves, their lifestyle and One of the first drug traffickers to be constantly in the press in their perceptions of the social agents with whom they had to co- the nineteen-thirties was Enrique Fernández Puerta, known as exist in order to succeed in their illegal business.Except for peo- the "Al Capone of Ciudad Juárez".The symbolic weight of other ple who were born into the business or were close enough to personalities from the "dry" period in the United States never write down its oral tradition, an inside view has not so far been equalled that of the famous "Scarface".Drug traffickers could be possible of symbolic production in the first five decades of the called different names,which included "hateful drug dealers","in- forbidden trade.Its public identity was defined,modelled and im- ternational narcotics mafia", "poisoners", "intoxicators", "riffraff", posed by the State and the media.Nevertheless,in the nineteen- "small fry", "sharks", "smuggling racketeers", "traffickers" or forties, at a time when the business and the number of partici- "mafiosos","gomeros","huarache gangsters"(gangsters in sandals) pants were growing fast, a word that had been created in the il- or "thugs".The term best known today, narcotraficante or "drug legal drug-trafficking field to designate traffickers was adopted trafficker", was first used in the press at the end of the nineteen- by the press.The word had already been part of the everyday lan- fifties(5).The cities where traffickers were most visible were com- guage of inhabitants of regions where the forbidden plants were pared with the Chicago of alcohol prohibition. Just like Capone grown – especially the opium poppy, from which opium is ex- and the Chicago of his day, today’s Sicilians and the Colombian tracted. The milky substance extracted from the papaver som- cocaine traffickers have been the inspiration for stereotypes niferum was known as goma — meaning "rubber" — in the named after the most outstanding criminals and the cities from mountains of Sinaloa.People trading in the product called them- which they have operated.The number of shoot-outs,executions selves gomeros (literally, "rubber tappers"). In the mountains of and gang reshuffles — basically the levels of armed violence — Chihuahua, the same product was known as chutama ("chutar" have been the common elements on which attention has fo- means "shoot"), and producers were called chutameros.In cused in an attempt to compare situations that are dissimilar in Sinaloa,newspaper articles often referred to opium traffickers as quality in different countries. gomeros. The national press also used the word, although to a lesser degree. It mainly preferred to use the official discourse, The language of the law universalised the categories in which with its own categories of perception created by jurists, politi- traffickers were perceived and watered down the specific differ- cians and the police.The foundations of this official discourse had ences between them.The law-breakers were criminals and noth- been established decades earlier. Changes usually tended to re- ing else. In the world of the police and in the press, the opposite inforce the initial view.The eruption of the word gomero into a was true;their particularities were given in detail,but always with (4) See Luis Astorga, El siglo de las drogas, Mexico, Espasa-Calpe Mexicana, 1996, pp.68-83. language that had until then been a State monopoly marked the a pejorative slant that was contrary to the meaning attributed by (5) See Excelsior,10/11/1956;Novedades,19/8/1957. beginning of a symbolic production generated inside the drug- traffickers and people in their world. For example, reference to a

FORMER NEXT 42 Chapter 3 major trafficker as an "Al Capone" had a different connotation ac- judicial authorities and have been gradually modifying their his- cording to whether it was made inside or outside the trafficking torical dependency on the executive power,thus opening the way world.Such differences in the meanings of the same words and in for real autonomy.These changes create the conditions in which the values associated with them form part of the process of build- members of the political field,who have always exempted them- ing ethical codes in the camps of legality and illegality.Deviation selves from anti-trafficking laws — it was always "the others" who from the socially accepted norm creates a new norm within the were traffickers — can also be placed in the categories that they deviant world, with its own codes of conduct, rewards and sanc- themselves helped to create. tions.And it is not necessarily easier to base one’s actions on such precepts that differ from those of conventional society.However, Illegal drug trafficking in Mexico is eight decades old. In all the trafficking field does not create a world that is completely her- that time, apart from the official speeches, archives, newspaper metic and alien to conventional society.It is a sub-group belong- articles and oral history connected with the trade,no other traces ing to a broader universe with which it shares joint activities and have been found to give us a better understanding of this na- spaces.What is more important is that the emergence of the traf- tional phenomenon. For example, before the nineteen-eighties, ficking field from inside or outside the legal power structures re- there seem to have been no memoirs,autobiographies,short sto- sults in a greater or lesser confrontation between the traffickers’ ries or specialised academic works published to record the dif- ethical codes and those dominant in conventional society. And ferent phases of its transformation.In fact,academic production this also explains the varying degrees of acceptance or rejection, on the theme regarding Mexico started in the nineteen-eighties of relatively peaceful coexistence, of tolerance, or of permanent and was undertaken by researchers from the United States. conflict. Authorities whose corrupt practices were better known Before then, the official discourse of governments prevailed. At than their work for the community would not have the grassroots one time there was criticism of the policies in force,but even then support required to confront the lawbreakers,and their sanctions the dominant discourse came from civil servants under those would lack credibility.To an extent they share common ethical same governments. For the social agents active in drug traffick- codes with the traffickers that they have protected and promoted. ing,the rule was to remain silent or to transmit oral history within The difference in status is legal, not moral.That is why the "natu- their own field.This attitude contrasts with that of famous per- ralization" process is more noticeable in societies where there is sonalities in the criminal world such as Al Capone, who used to greater tolerance for traffickers,or coexistence is easier,and cycli- call press conferences when he wished to say something impor- cal tensions are reasonably well controlled.The attitude of such tant.That ability to express views in public and to use the com- societies is pragmatic, and their not entirely disinterested resig- munication media could also be observed in Colombia,and was nation is induced by the possible economic benefit to certain sec- demonstrated by Carlos Lehder, Pablo Escobar, Gonzalo tors of the economy that are favoured for recycling unlawful earn- Rodríguez Gacha and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela,amongst oth- ings.Organized groups have, however, sometimes come forward ers. Radio and the press in Colombia and the United States to protest at the collusion between authorities and traffickers and recorded their views of the business that they were engaged in at the level and characteristics of the violence,which they feel has and of other connected issues. In Mexico, there have been few exceeded the limits that they formerly considered tolerable.In re- such examples since the beginning of the different prohibitions, cent years, the established categories for classifying politically and these were initiatives by journalists.First there were the 1988 subordinate social agents and legal sanctions have turned against interviews in prison with Caro Quintero(6), accused of the 1985 the very people who were accustomed to using these from posi- murders of DEA agent Enrique Camarena and the Mexican pilot tions in which they monopolised political power.It is not,however, Alfredo Zavala.In one of these he talked about his love affair with the judicial powers that have set off this incipient boomerang ef- the niece of a member of the State party’s political elite,who was fect.It is transformations in the correlation of political forces at na- one of the PRI leaders, Mayor of Mexico City and Governor of (6) See Luis Astorga, El siglo…, op.cit., pp.144, 150. tional level that have shaken the inertia and complacency of the Jalisco. As a result of his declarations he was punished in prison

FORMER NEXT 43 Chapter 3 and obliged to retract.The supernatural power that the media growing importance of the media. In return, the stories repro- had attributed to him vanished when faced with the force of the duced by the same media have broadened the themes of the State.Then there were the interviews,one by telephone and the corridos produced, which thus go beyond local outlooks. other by mail,with Benjamín Arellano(7),chief of one of one of the organisations accused of having assassinated Cardinal Posadas The type of music that accompanies the traffickers’corridos is in Guadalajara in 1993. He said that he and his brother Ramón known as norteña, and instruments can include the accordion, had met on different occasions with Gerónimo Prigione, repre- the guitar,the double bass,the bajo sexto (a Mexican bass guitar sentative of the Vatican in Mexico. On one of these, the nuncio resembling a twelve-string guitar,but tuned to an octave lower), had telephoned the President,the Minister of the Interior and the the redoba (which is a wooden board hung around the neck and Chief Attorney of the Republic. Inexplicably, the authorities did used as a percussion instrument) and the clarinet.This type of nothing to arrest these people.These are the only times when music is traditional on the northern frontier and in Northern traffickers’ voices have transcended their own world, and when Mexico generally. The Northwest, and particularly the state of the public has heard even part of their side of the story. In the Sinaloa,was where forbidden plants were grown and illegal drug other cases,even when Juan García Abrego was extradited to the trafficking took place, and the place of origin of the major traf- United States and the press speculated that he would probably fickers. Here, the local traditional music known as the tambora, reveal important secrets connected with politics, nothing hap- which is composed for wind and percussion instruments,has also pened.The law of silence prevailed(8). been used as a musical accompaniment. In the same way, the traffickers’arrival in Jalisco and the increase from the mid-seventies in activities connected with the trade led to corridos being The Traffickers’ Corridos performed to the accompaniment of mariachis — the musical groups that brought international fame to the state of Jalisco.The Since the 19th century at least,the corrido has had a significant traffickers’ liking for these folk groups helped to identify them place in the cultural life of the Spanish-speaking poorer classes even more with people of their own social origins. on both sides of the border between Mexico and the United States. It was one of the vehicles most used to give shape to the For some time now the mariachi has been a symbol associ- life history of these classes and their view of the world.As a gen- ated with everything Mexican, both inside the country and eral rule,composers of corridos came from the same social back- abroad.Groups playing norteña music and the Sinaloan tambora ground.They were able,therefore,to use a language that was ac- have not acquired the same degree of fame. Nevertheless, they cessible to and understandable by the vast majority in synthe- have been gaining ground over recent years and they are already sising the ideas, feelings and values of people from these social listened and danced to in other parts of the nation. Familiarity groups who were attached to the soil and barely literate,at least with these styles of music beyond their own regional frontiers at the beginning and for several decades.There are hardly any ar- obviously has to do with the media, but also with the themes of eas of social life that have not been written into a corrido. It has the songs and their performers.Music associated with the tastes been a permanent method of writing history from the bottom of of the poorer classes in its regions of origin has first crossed ge- the social pyramid. Nevertheless, not every social phenomenon ographical barriers and, later, barriers of class-connected aes- (7) See ibid., pp.157-158. has been encoded in a corrido as soon as it has appeared or in the thetic appreciation.In certain social circles unused to this kind of (8) See Andrés Oppenheimer,Salinas’name came up early years of its development. At the same time, certain phe- music, people tend to associate it with traffickers’ tastes, since before drug lord’s trial, Miami Herald, 19/1/1997; nomena, upon inclusion in a corrido, have acquired a degree of they first became familiar with the norteña and tambora music Francisco Rojas, "Cadena perpetua a Carcía Abrego y visibility beyond the frontiers of the geographical areas from through the traffickers’corridos.The mariachi is above suspicion multa superior a US $128 million" (Life imprisonment for Carcía Abrego and a fine of over US $128 million), which they have emerged.The dissemination of this history in because it has long been appropriated as one of the symbols of El Universal, 1/2/1997. verse, which is put to music and sung, has benefited from the national identity. On the one hand, the traffickers’ themes in-

FORMER NEXT 44 Chapter 3 cluded in the corridos contributed to the mass dissemination of As these were forbidden goods,the only way to get them to their the oral history of a high-impact social phenomenon and of its final destination was by smuggling. The Mexico-United States accompanying music. On the other hand, there was no doubt frontier was the natural setting for all types of illegal commerce that the theme increased the fame of performers that were al- between the two countries. The corrido norteño, which was a ready known, and made the unknown famous. In addition, au- great tradition on both sides of the frontier,once again recorded thors discovered an as yet unexplored and profitable source. the phenomenon of illegal drug trafficking. On this occasion, Demand increased for norteña and tambora music.It awoke the however, it did it with such force and frequency, and in such de- entrepreneurial spirit of people who started to set up small tail and quantity, that its impact was immediate on the frontier recording studios,and the interest of large recording companies population and on that of non-border states in the North that (9) "Carga Blanca" (White Cargo) by José C.Valdés, that — unburdened by the moral reservations of certain author- produced the forbidden plants. In the latter, the poorer classes a corrido of the nineteen-forties: ities — could see promising business prospects in the cultural were used to listening to the songs of these musical groups. They crossed the Rio Bravo/ while night was almost falling/ with a big white cargo/ that they had to sell/ phenomenon. Radio noted the demand and helped to create it, During the seventies, the demand for marijuana in the United All went well and they arrived in San Antonio/ and while live concerts left no doubt as to the cultural impact of the States grew to hitherto unknown levels.The Viet Nam war and went straight/ to Navidad Street/to a stone house/ new symbolic production. Obviously, not all those who listened counter-culture movements were the catalysts. In the same José and Ramón went in/ with Simón waiting for to such music were traffickers or wished to be traffickers. And decade,the structure of the drug market in the United States di- them in the truck/ Don Nicanor paid them/ Ten thousand eight hundred pesos/and they gave him among the traffickers there were those who had not merited a versified and a growing demand for cocaine from South America the cargo/ and it was the best/ They were just arriv- corrido because they were too low in the hierarchy of the trade, was observed.The first traffickers’ corridos pinpointing the mo- ing/ at Veracruz street/ when a black car with lights or because their adventures had not been overly spectacular or ment when these themes took off were officially recorded in out / barred the way/ Don’t move/ if you don’t want original. Nevertheless, they too wanted their share of immortal- 1975 and reflect the presence of marijuana and cocaine.In addi- to die/ give us the money you’ve just received/ (11) Several pistol shots/ and screams of pain/ were sud- ity, and decided to pay composers for a made-to-measure cor- tion,they mention the two frontier states,California and Texas , denly heard/ that night of terror/ The ambulance rido.A trafficker without a corrido was likely to go to his grave as where smuggling has been most prevalent. As in other corridos took away/ Two dead and three wounded/ but the the "unknown trafficker". And what the traffickers wanted was that speak of different phenomena,there is a mixture of real and roll of notes/disappeared/ In that place,according to social visibility — or at least symbolic visibility after death. fictitious characters.At the beginning,the most important social what they say/people have seen how/all the money/returned to its master / I would kiss it good- agents in the story,embodied by the traffickers,were imaginary. bye/ but I’ve already lost it/ I’ve dropped the crooked When we take into account the moment when illegal drug Later, fictitious characters moved into the background, with the business/ you can see what happened. trafficking started in Mexican society, we realise — although names of real traffickers taking their place. Nevertheless, stories (10) See Luis Astorga, Cocaine in Mexico in Paul decades late — that a corrido made a passing mention of the of their exploits, which were based on real events, continued to Cootenberg (editor),Cocaine.Global Histories,Great Britain,USA and Canada,Routledge,1999,pp.183-191. theme in the nineteen-forties.The title of the song was "Carga contain imaginary elements that would help turn them into leg- (11) "La banda del Carro Rojo" (The Red Car Gang); Blanca"(9) (White Cargo).The words do not mention the name of ends. by Paulino Vargas (1975): the drug alluded to in the title.We have to refer to the drug mar- "They say that they came from the south/ in a coloured ket of the day to understand that this was heroin, as those hear- Corrido writers were close to the poorer classes and their per- car/ carrying a hundred kilos of coca/ on their way to Chicago/ or so the informer said/ that shopped them/ ing the song at the time would have understood. Cocaine, al- ceptions, and sometimes to the world of traffickers themselves. They had already gone through customs/ in El Paso, though it was used and could be associated with the title, was When written into their corridos,all the characteristics that made Texas/ but right in San Antonio/ they were waiting for neither the preferred drug nor the drug with the greatest circu- the traffickers undesirable in the eyes of the legal world were them/ it was the Texas Rangers/ that rule the county…" lation or importance(10).After that corrido,it is not known whether transformed into attributes and emblematic symbols of the per- "Contrabando y Traición" (Smuggling and Betrayal), by Angel González (1975): there were others of the same type recorded before the mid-sev- sonalities of social agents who were the object of so much ad- "They were leaving San Ysidro/ coming from Tijuana/ enties. From then on, songs mentioning drug trafficking have miration and fear.The traffickers in their turn recognised them- they had the car tyres/ filled with grass/ there were flooded the music market. selves in the descriptions of characters that feared nobody, or Emilio Varela/ and Camelia “The Texan”…/ They ar- only God and the government on certain difficult occasions. rived in Los Angeles/ they passed through Hollywood/ in a dark alley/ they changed the four tyres/ there they As the market in the country itself was not significant, illegal Some of them asked for songs in their honour, since they con- delivered the grass/ and they were paid on the spot…" drugs were mainly produced for consumers in the United States. sidered that their exploits should be known, as well as their ori-

FORMER NEXT 45 Chapter 3 gins,career path,values,friends,horses,cars and weapons.Others for the trafficking on their territory,for the traffickers who were preferred songs to be composed or recorded when their active born there and for the permanent nature of their activities.The life had ended,due to forced retirement in prison or death.While authorities’ aim was to prevent the spreading of the values they were alive and free,some preferred to keep a low profile and transmitted in the words of many corridos of this type, since make themselves invisible;by not calling attention to themselves they turn lawbreakers into heroes and their lifestyle into a they were able to continue doing profitable business.The drug myth.The trouble is that,despite the authorities’desire and the lord down to the smallest street dealer has had his composition moral measures that have been suggested,there are more and and his hour of fame.The trafficker’s corrido started as a kind of more people who like this type of music. However, this is not spontaneous sociology on the part of composers of popular mu- necessarily because they identify wholly with what is said in the sic.It turned into the fastest and most efficient vehicle for broad- corridos, nor because they need to know what to do in the casting the minimal attributes that anyone aspiring to recogni- drug-trafficking world if they are already in it or wish to enter tion as a trafficker had to possess, and the ethical codes that he it.There can be many reasons, including simple curiosity, a de- would have to respect in his field and that would guide his ac- sire to hear stories that differ from the official ones — or even tivities and life projects. It also identified dangers and enemies the catharsis that many people experience with similar sym- inside and outside the country, those who were faithful to the bolic productions in films, on the television, on the stage or in rules of the legal game and those who were ready to sell them- books.People who base their criteria on spontaneous sociology selves at the first tempting offer — even members of institutions and psychology think that the traffickers’corridos effect a mag- with reputations for honesty such as the army. ical change in the ethical orientations of their audience. Adopting Bourdieu’s reasoning on other examples of symbolic If we wish to obtain versions that differ from those issued by production, it can be said that the content of traffickers’ corri- government antidrug offices, corridos are an easily available dos only convinces the already converted. This means that it means of obtaining parallel versions of certain major mile- probably represents the equivalent of the word of the Gospel stones in the history of drug trafficking. Examples include the to people born in the trafficking field, who have appropriated capture of famous leaders or the deaths of certain representa- all its ethical dispositions and are extremely unlikely to leave it. tives of the law of Mexico and the United States. Although use It can also apply to people born outside it whose ethical incli- of the communication media is the basic vehicle for official ver- nations nevertheless coincide with those prevailing in the field sions, part of the media have been instrumental in revealing of trafficking. stories that were contrary to and just as implausible as those defended repeatedly by the government.The corrido combines There is no reference in the drug trafficking corridos to the his- popular music with direct, simple language, and offers a differ- tory of the trade at its outset. History starts at a given time, the ent interpretation of events reflecting perceptions shared by nineteen-seventies, as if the phenomenon had developed spon- people outside the law and by others who — while not delin- taneously.The composers usually used the word traficante (traf- quents — empathise with certain aspects of the traffickers’ ficker) to designate the main characters. Other significant syn- lives. These variables, added to an expanding market for this onyms refer to different criminal milieus and organisations, such kind of symbolic production, have been instrumental in mak- as "Mafioso", "gangster" or "member of Costa Nostra". At the being the traffickers’ corridos into one of the most important ginning, not even the word gomero was known, and those social forms of competition for the legitimate viewpoint of trafficking agents were designated variously in the absence of a single, uni- and traffickers.This is why there have been various attempts at versal name for them. Nor did the organisations that they be- censorship in Sinaloa and Chihuahua, and more recently in longed to or headed have a special name.Composers,whose ref- Sonora, Baja California and Coahuila. These states have for erences for the criminal world perhaps came from Hollywood decades been renowned for the cultivation of unlawful plants, films, presumed that the organisations must be similar to the

FORMER NEXT 46 Chapter 3 Italian ones because they were concerned with illegal business, ers in rival gangs. Buchanans whisky and beer seem to be their smuggling and armed violence.The activity itself was not classi- favourite drinks. In early traffickers’ corridos the social uses of (12) El chaca ("The Jackal"),(Mario Quintero Lara):"A fied under a single word.In other words,an activity and the social drugs are rarely mentioned. In recent ones cocaine is talked of brand-new truck / is driving through the state/ it has (16) darkened windows/ and a big shot driving it/ the partners engaged in it were being talked about,but they were not quite naturally and more often,even in rural zones not covered Michoacan Jackal/ that’s what they call him/ Poverty being perceived in a single, original way. Universal designations by national addiction surveys. Although the field of drug traf- made him/ choose that path/ by his valour he would come from outside the trafficking world. The terms nar- ficking usually concerns persons of the male sex,the women who changed/ his miserable destiny/ first he was the cotráfico (drug trafficking),narcotraficante (drug trafficker),or just are actively involved have the same attributes as their male col- godson/ and now he is the godfather…" (13) La fiesta de los perrones (The top-dogs’ party) narco for short,and cartel later became the basic categories used leagues.They are capable of brutal murder, and even of cutting (Francisco Quintero): in the official discourse on drug trafficking.They would be used in off heads(17),or of disguising themselves as nuns(18) so as to achieve The "dogs’" party is in full swing/ there are chiefs corridos but would not have the same, central position as in the their objectives. from Sinaloa/ from Michoacan and Durango/ from original discourse.In fact,corrido writers would continue to use all Jalisco and Sonora/ from Chihuahua and there are Colombians/ The accordion and the tuba/ it’s the fun the synonyms that came from the trafficking world itself. For ex- The traffickers’musical tastes accompany them to the grave of the party/ they turn bright red/and even the ample, a trafficker would be a chaca(12) (jackal), a perrón (a dog) or and beyond.The corridos have a very special way of recalling sleepiest wake up/with drugs of all kinds/and ev- a perrón pesado (a top dog)(13).The words of corridos do not break the goods that made a trafficker famous.According to the com- erything cool round the table…/ In big brand-new completely with officially perceived categories.These are used, posers, the crosses on their crypts are made of poppies(19) and trucks/ others in bullet-proof cars/ they arrive in lux- (20) urious limos/ and even in private planes/ there’s no not consistently and exclusively, but as part of existing designa- marijuana .They do not deny their own parish cross. At their doubt about it, gentlemen/ these are top dogs. tions and as identifying symbols produced outside that are some- funeral, they prefer to be sent off with fistfuls of dust on their (14) "Cuerno de chivo" ("Goat’s horn" [AK7]) (Paulino times adopted by the traffickers themselves in their everyday lan- coffins. However, the dust is not earth; it is white and the dust Vargas): guage. In their declarations, detained traffickers refer to them- of their trade in life. "When I die I don’t want/ to take a fistful of "I paint the stripe in the water/ said Timerio Monares/ if they want my skin/ they’ll have to risk their cash/ selves as cattle breeders,traders,farmers or any other profession, earth with me/ I want a fistful of powder/ and a crate of bottles/ with my "goat’s horn"/ I’m not afraid of the federal but never as narcos or perrones.Neither do they talk of being part but it has to be Buchanans/ and the dust must be the queen of soldiers…" or head of an "organisation", a "mafia" or a "cartel".They may ad- powders…"(21). Funerals are fiestas and the aim is to continue the (15) El gallo de San Juan ("The cock from San Juan") mit to being members or to leading a banda or pandilla (a gang). party in celestial company,and not with the king of darkness."And (Apolonia Alvarez): "In Nuevo León I went to a cock-fight/ in the village of The coexistence in the corridos of categories of perception of dif- if I die sniffing coke/ I just want to ask you/ to give me some more/ Cadereyta/ I heard a corrido/sung by Manuel Salcido ferent fields probably demonstrates a permanent symbolic ten- so I don’t suffer up there/ and I want to invite Saint Peter/ to try Uzeta/ a local gallo (cock) from San Juan/ who has his sion and a struggle to impose legitimate classifications, in some of what we use down here…"(22). knife at the ready…"; Bourdieu’s meaning,that is endlessly defining itself. Caro Quintero (Jesús María Leal Leyva): "… For having killed a police officer/of the American Francisco Labastida was governor of Sinaloa from 1987-1992. government/for having robbed a woman from Stories about traffickers are full of means of transport for per- One of his explicit concerns during his mandate was public safety Jalisco/ now he’s been tried/ the lion is king of the sons and goods,weapons,zoological metaphors,friends and en- and the "glorification of violence" on the radio, television and in wild beasts/ even though he’s been gaoled…" emies and the attributes associated with totemic animals and the written press. He assembled the radio owners and asked (16) “Pista secreta” (Secret track) (Mario Quintero Lara): men of valour.Favourite drinks are also mentioned with — for the them to remove traffickers’corridos from their programmes.This "he took out a bag of powder/ and took three fast last few years — the drugs that they use.Vehicles include luxuri- was a personal request,because no law was passed to ban them. snorts/ he clicked the barrel of his gun into place/and ous cars and vans and planes big and small. The weapon that During the mandate of his predecessor, Antonio Toledo Corro tied his shirt/ he told his companions/there is trou- stands out is the AK-7, commonly known as the cuerno de chivo (1981-1986), Sinaloan traffickers who had left the state to set ble on the track/ Coming from Colombia/ a small (14) plane was coming/ to the Sinaloan mountains/ (goat’s horn). It has a corrido describing its special properties . themselves up in Jalisco during "Operation Condor" (1975-1978) where it was going to unload/ but the Law had The animals most frequently associated with traffickers are the had returned home to Sinaloa.Violence, trafficking, kidnapping, found/ the secret track…/ The man burst out laugh- cock and the lion,from which they derive their bravery and fight- murder and rape increased under the nose of a passive state gov- ing/ and kissed the packets/ So they thought they ing spirit(15).With their friends they are sincere and faithful, with ernment, which was accused by the political opposition of pro- could get me while I was high / they don’t know who they’re dealing with/ if it wasn’t for the coke/ I would- their enemies,implacable.The traffickers’enemies are the police, tecting the traffickers.The Corridos of those years record the phe- n’t have saved the cargo". the army, informers, the United States government and traffick- nomenon precisely. "The gunmen are back/ the people over there

FORMER NEXT 47 Chapter 3 are saying so/ they are ready for anything/ because they are brave were the first to achieve success with traffickers’corridos,and are (17) La rubia y la morena (“The blonde and the men/ they are returning to Culiacan/ the Sinaloan capital…"(23)."The known even in Japan.At the end of 1999,the government of the brunette") (Fiden Astor): Mafioso vultures are back/ in Tierra Blanca, their nest/ cutting off Federal District,which was in the hands of the opposition (PRD), "A hundred pounds of grass/they passed in a crate/ they said it was only a corpse/ it was the father of itchy fingers/ and informers in revenge/ in districts of Culiacán/ you invited Los Tigres del Norte to give a free concert in the Main both of them/ they were the blonde and the can hear the roaring of sub-machine guns…"(24).Viewed in the con- Square of the republic’s capital.This was part of a programme of brunette/ and very brave females/ They sacrificed a text of Toledo’s legacy, Governor Labastida’s request was under- concerts involving groups from various countries playing differ- man/ they cut off his head/ when they arrived at cus- standable,but it does not seem to have had any practical effects. ent kinds of music.The group from Sinaloa had a crowd of ad- toms/ they pretended to be very sad/ so that even the guards cried/ expressing their sympathy/ Inside Since it did not become law,the business world acted with an eye mirers from the capital singing and dancing to love songs and the head/ they placed a kilo and a half/ of the valu- to the economy rather than to the moral concerns of the state traffickers’ corridos in the norteño style, just as it had done on able white powder/ to take it to Chicago/ and thus governor.The cassettes and records continued to circulate freely countless occasions in live concerts in Northern Mexico and in leave poverty behind them/ crossing various and everyone did according to the dictates of their conscience the south of the United States. A quarter of a century after the states…/On the banks of the Bravo/ there is a head- less man/ and the customs guards/ crying behind and of market demand. first recordings connected with drug trafficking, these songs bars/ and the brunette and the blonde/ in search of have been incorporated into popular culture throughout the other heads". The censorship idea was not specific as to whether it was country, perhaps because cultivation, trafficking and consump- (18) "Las monjitas" (The nuns) (Francisco Quintero): aimed exclusively at corridos where the traffickers were the tion are phenomena that no longer belong exclusively to re- "a truck left Durango/ at two or three in the morning/ two very pretty girls were carrying/ pure coke and also heroes or whether it also included those that praised the exploits gional history, but to the entire nation. marijuana/ but they were disguised as nuns/ to be able of the police(25).This distinction was important because although to take it to Tijuana…/In Durango they are looking for most songs enhanced the role of the lawless,the same record or The words of the early traffickers’ corridos reveal a degree of two nuns/ who have still not returned to the convent/ tape would include stories of officials who had carried out their linguistic reticence and self-censorship on the part of composers, and of one thing I can assure you/ that they arrived with the cargo/ over there they say that they are real mission perfectly and whose attributes were similarly recog- who seem to have feared that to refer to forbidden business in big shots/ and that they’re living in Sacramento". nised,celebrated and magnified.In addition,there were corridos direct terms would attract official censorship. References to the (19) La cruz de amapola (The poppy cross) (Silvestre that spoke of drug trafficking but ended with moral preaching, most common drugs in the illegal trade were therefore less fre- Solano): pointing out the risks that people would have to face if they quent,less open and more metaphorical.Compositions in recent "…I know that one day I’m going to die/when my time (26) comes/ I want my cross/ to be a poppy flower/ and I chose to break the law . Neither was it said clearly whether the years include high-sounding words and dramatic narration to in- want you to play Los Capos for me/ and for there also blacklist would include old songs such as "Amapola", which troduce the theme or similar effects between the verses.There is to be tambora…" means "poppy" — the plant from which opium is extracted.The frequent mention of cocaine,of the social uses of the drug in ru- (20) "Mi último contrabando" (My last smuggling song, rediscovered during that period, had become a great suc- ral zones and the properties attributed to it.The main characters job): "…Decorate my whole grave/ with goma (poppy/co- cess performed by a well-known Spanish singer.And what about seem to be more cynical in these corridos,which also reflect mod- caine) and bouquets of "grass"…"; songs in English,such as the popular "Marijuana Boogie" by Lalo ern market strategies, use of the latest technologies for their "Cruz de marihuana" D.A.R.(The Marijuana Cross): Guerrero,"Cocaine" performed by Eric Clapton,"Sister Morphine" communications,transport systems adapted to the global econ- "…On my grave /raise a cross of marijuana/ I don’t sung by the Stones,or the numerous rap themes connected with omy, and an internationalised industry.The leader of the Tigres want tears or prayers/ or holy ground/ bury me in the forest/ with lions from my pride/and I’m off,friend.Oh drugs and traffickers? If we follow the reasoning of the governor del Norte criticised the use of strong language and pointed out, man!/Water that marijuana cross/ with wine and and his advisers,censorship would have to cover simultaneously without naming anyone, that the new groups performing this liqueurs/seven days a week/ and play me my music/ any symbolic production that, in his opinion, glorified violence. particular style of corrido were damaging the market(27).The main norteña music/ sing my songs there…" This would include the content of books, journals, newspapers, composer and spokesperson for Los Tucanes de Tijuana, another (21) El puño de polvo ("The fistful of dust") (Mario Quintero Lara). radio programmes,stage plays,films and television.The censors’ famous Sinaloan group that could be considered to have initi- (22) Me gusta ponerle al polvo ("I love to sniff the task would have been impossible.In fact,market forces prevailed. ated this new trend,responded to the most general criticisms by powder") (author unknown). The large record companies and national television channels pointing out that if finishing with the traffickers’ corridos meant (23) Han vuelto los pistoleros ("The gunmen have re- gave space to grupos norteños that were famous in Mexico and finishing with drug trafficking, they were ready to retire. In his turned"), performed by Indalecio Anaya. (28) (24) La mafia vuelve ("The mafia is coming back"), abroad, who sung traffickers’ corridos as naturally as they per- opinion,hiding reality does more harm to people .Certain crit- performed by Indalecio Anaya. formed romantic songs.Nobody felt offended.Los Tigres del Norte ics of the group claimed in the press that the Arellano brothers

FORMER NEXT 48 Chapter 3 — a powerful organisation of Sinaloan traffickers with its head- visited several times —,have probably been instrumental in mak- (25) For example, El comandante Ventura ("Police quarters in Tijuana — had given them their costumes, as they ing traffickers’ corridos known and appreciated in his country chief Ventura") (Sepúlveda): had done with other groups. And one member of the organisa- and promoting their import.He would take cocaine into Mexico "It was Florentino Ventura/the terror of traffickers/ who with great bravery confronted/ dealers and raiders/ he tion pointed out that there are clues in the group’s songs for peo- and come back with dollars and corridos. Several corridos talk was a very brave police officer/a police chief at ple in the business: "There is a promoter who I believe is called about this personality and his life.Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha was Interpol…/The mafia trembled because it knew/ that Quintero (Mario Quintero, composer for the Tucanes). He writes all popularly known as "The Mexican", for obvious reasons such as Florentino knew/ about corrupt politicians/ crimes and the corridos.I don’t know how the information gets to him,but with his symbolic naming of his country estates after Mexican cities, all sorts of tricks/and they laid him a trap/ killing him in cold blood" the corridos you get the philosophy and how all the members of the and because of other tastes of his that are narrated in the corri- (26) La hierba mala ("Grass"): cartel have to behave. In one song you hear how they have to be- dos. "Although he was born in Colombia/ they called him "The "… Gentlemen as I say goodbye/ I am going to recom- have, another tells you what they did wrong and why they were Mexican"…/ he was born in Pacho and was the king"(31); "He was al- mend/ that you leave smuggling/ because it can kill you" killed.So you already know what you must avoid doing if you don’t ways wild/ about everything Mexican/ Chihuahua in little old (27) See Martha Brant, "Drug Balladeers", in Newsweek, 23 March 1998. Examples of strong lan- want to get killed,and what you have to do to earn points,just by lis- Pacho/ names like this everywhere/ and he loved to listen/ to guage by some corrido singers follow: El cabrón tening to the music"(29). Insinuations about the presumed relation norteños and mariachis"(32) "Money and a gun/ also good cocks/ (Silvestre Solano and Alexis Anaya): between the musicians and the Arellanos have not been proved. tequila and mariachis/ and a fine horse/ those were Rodríguez (translator’s note: "cabrón" literally means "male What is true is that their songs have been very successful com- Gacha’s pleasures"(33); "They called him "The Mexican"/ because he goat". It is used variously to indicate a bad person (34) or a skilful or clever one,depending on the context.) mercially and the group has made enough money not to have to came as far as my Mazatlán" .The reference to this Sinaloan port "Since I was small/I’ve looked like a cabrón/ I was al- be rely on anyone other than their audience.The songs indeed is perhaps not quite innocent. It was the zone of influence of ready sniffing coke/and marijuana even more/ be- reflect codes of ethics that the traffickers themselves have cre- Manuel Salcido Uzeta El Cochiloco, the trafficker who seems to cause in my Mexico Lindo /today anyone can be a ated.The composer sends these codes back to them,in verse and have the most corridos in his honour, both spontaneous and cabrón./ I like to be stoned/ to smoke plenty of marijuana/ I light up all the time/ I enjoy being high/ I sniff set to music.Greater or lesser recognition of such codes depends commissioned by him. Both shared the same notoriety for sav- kilos at a time/ don’t think I’m joking/ I’m more cabrón on the composer’s capacity to identify their most significant as- agery and a taste for songs narrating their exploits.Both came to than handsome/ this is how I’m going to die/ heroin, pects. And such sensitivity will depend on the composer’s par- ends as violent as their lives had been. In Colombia, there were rocks or coke/ I even take them to bed/I’m a real cabrón ticular observation skills, his strategies to obtain information or also obviously compositions relating the adventures of Pablo for coke/just ask me…" and "El chingón de Durango" (The big shot from to process information circulating in the media,and also the de- Escobar Gaviria."The hardest among capos…/ An immense crowd/ Durango) (Silvestre Solano) gree of his own proximity with the world that he is describing. If gathered at his funeral/ because although he was bad/ he helped a "… And it was not evil tongues/that made Durango fa- there are traffickers that really do rely on such corridos as a guide, lot of people"(35); "It was Pablo Escobar Gaviria/ the most popular mous/it is because he sorted out anyone/ that messed then by the time the songs have been composed, recorded and man of the century/ he was a man of courage/ intelligent and dar- around/ they came up against the big shot/the biggest shot in Durango…" launched on the market, their message would probably arrive ing…/ From the United States/ he brought a lot of money/ with the (28) See the article by María Rivera in La Jornada,4 too late and the recipient would no longer be of this world. help of the poor people/ of his people, his people…/ On his forty- January 1998.And the interview carried out by César fourth birthday/ and not one day more/ the Search Block tracked Romero Jacobo in Reforma, 24 May 1998. The popular success of traffickers’ corridos in Mexico has him down/ and that was his end/ from dust you came Pablo/ and (29) See the article by Francisco Ortiz Pardo and (36) Carlos Puig in Proceso, n° 1083, 3/8/97. crossed national frontiers, travelling northward to the states on you returned to dust" . (30) Sinaloa cowboys: the other side of the Río Bravo in the United States, and south- "Word was out some men in/ from Sinaloa were look- ward to Colombia,where this symbolic production can be heard There are several reasons that might explain why these cor- ing for some hands/ well deep in Fresno county/ there with norteña music and mariachis. In "Sinaloa cowboys"(30), the ridos became a kind of indirect representation of the symbolic was a deserted chicken ranch/ There in a small tin shack on/ the edge of a ravine/ Miguel and Louis stood popular singer Bruce Springsteen uses a different style of music, universe of the traffickers.One of these was connected with the cooking/ methamphetamine…" but a narrative similar to that of the corrido, to tells the story of origins of the illegal drug trafficking field in the Mexican con- (31) El gran mexicano ("The big Mexican"). Mexican methamphetamine traffickers in northern California.In text,as subordinate to political power and removed from polit- (32) Por fortuna o castigo ("Luckily or unluckily"). Colombia, Mexican music has long been popular. And Gonzalo ical activity.In other words,traffickers had no way of expressing (33) Tupumarú. (34) El rebelde ("The rebel"). Rodríguez Gacha’s fascination for things Mexican, added to his themselves publicly and were reduced to acting on the fringes (35) El corrido de Pablo ("Pablo’s corrido"). direct contacts with Sinaloan traffickers — who he is said to have of society. For decades of the illegal trade, generations of spe-

FORMER NEXT 49 Chapter 3 cialised groups of traffickers were forming and silently creating did not need intermediaries; they spoke for themselves and for their own symbols of identity. In their places of origin these whoever shared their views, and more openly than Capone had symbols were easier to recognise, even on sight, since in many been able to do.In Mexico,traffickers have historically remained cases their wardrobe, cars, attitudes and lifestyle gave them in the relative clandestinity that permits dissimulation and offi- away.Another reason was the dizzying increase in the demand cial protection. And politics as a field is forbidden to traffickers, for drugs in the United States from the end of the nineteen-six- since it has for decades been the monopoly of those who have ties, and the speed with which traffickers accumulated wealth. contributed actively to their existence, development and per- If they were visible before, extraordinary quantities of fast manence.That is why,in the symbolic competition,the trafficker’s money were immediately invested in outer symbols of wealth voice was heard in a field that was different,but no less effective comparable or superior to those of the upper classes in their for practical purposes, even though its creation was largely in- places of origin.These included houses,cars,ranches and legit- dependent of his will.This was the field of oral history put to mu- imate businesses in the services sector. Neither the authorities sic and aimed at the mass market.In the case of Colombia,the ex- nor legitimate society placed any visible barriers against this in- pulsion of well-known traffickers from direct political action is flux of hot money into the regional economy.Social barriers be- perhaps one reason that explains at least partially the success of came more flexible,but the political barriers remained.The traf- traffickers’corridos in recent years.After all,Colombian traffickers fickers learned the limits of the double moral standard, and used to be accustomed to expressing themselves in public, and were increasingly present even in social circles where formerly such opportunities nowadays are becoming increasingly rare. they had not openly mixed.In other words,they were acquiring Traffickers in both countries have not only learned to do business de facto recognition of their fortune, independently of the together,but also to develop symbolic strategies to construct an methods used to acquire it. All this was part of the process by emblematic identity. which — again in Bourdieu’s terminology — the stigma was transformed into an emblem.The traffickers’corridos arrived on Al Capone was a jazz enthusiast, but this did not result in the music market in this very context, which explains the mul- jazz songs about his life or the lives of other gangsters.In some tiplier effect of the process and the commercial success of that circles jazz musicians were associated with the use of cocaine symbolic production in regions of the country where the phe- and heroin. Composers did not spontaneously write songs nomenon was occurring in more or less the same way.What the about Al Capone’s exploits,values or lifestyle.Neither did he pay traffickers could not express openly in the public arena because them to do so.He was also an opera fan,like the Mafiosos in the of the double politico-legal obstacle was beginning to be said Puzo novels, but there is no known opera that talks of the his- in the sphere of grassroots culture. tory of the Mafia and the adventures of the capos.The social circle in which they evolved and their cultural legacy modelled In Columbia,the drug trade started to become important fifty their musical tastes. Because of their social and geographical years after it had started in Mexico,but it developed at a surpris- origins, a large majority of Mexican traffickers were born with (36) La ranchera de Pablo ("Pablo’s ranchera") [a ing speed. Colombian traffickers were neither part of the politi- the corrido norteño, the Sinaloan tambora and the mariachi as ranchera is a typical Mexican song] Another corrido, cal power structures, nor subordinate to them. Some of them, part of their social and regional identity.Urban traffickers in the El rey de los capos ("The king of capos") says: such as Carlos Lehder and Pablo Escobar, formed political asso- middle or upper classes with greater cultural capital, or from "This is the story of a man/ who was wanted by the law/ for drug trafficking/ he was the king of narcos… The ciations and engaged in legitimate politics.In fact,Pablo Escobar other parts of the country and younger, probably prefer an- hardest man/ in the Medellin cartel/ was the most managed to become deputy representative. At the beginning, other type of music. Nevertheless, if they do not mind being wanted man/ until he arrived at his end… Tears,sad- there was apparently nothing to stop them expressing their in- talked about and want to be remembered in songs, they will ness and pain/ everywhere/ Antioquia lost its friend/ terests via political channels, although subsequent investiga- not reject the corridos.For example,such variables as social ori- all Colombia cried/ the good works he did/ will go down in history/ and may God keep in his glory/ Pablo tions, terrorist acts and pressure from the United States soon gins and cultural capital were reflected in the known musical Escobar". changed the rules of the game. Until this happened, traffickers tastes of two Colombian traffickers:Rodríguez Gacha loved the

FORMER NEXT 50 Chapter 3 traffickers’corridos,while Carlos Lehder preferred John Lennon’s ated the cult or it was their exclusive heritage.The press, with its music. As for Mexican traffickers, it is their inclination for corri- publicity-seeking tendency to label,was insensitive to the histori- dos that is best known, but those who have other tastes have cal and sociological roots of the cult, and made no difference — not considered it necessary to make them known and no one nor did such a difference interest them — between believers out- has bothered to ask them. In any case, for the time being the side the field of trafficking and traffickers that were believers. corrido is the only category of music that provides them with a Traffickers were in search of their historical lineage as one of their reflection that is so close to their view of the world. symbols of identity,while they were active agents in an illegal field that was condemned by the dominant morality.They found in this bandit-hero the antecedents of their own odyssey according to Other Symbols of Identity their perceptions,which were already reflected in a certain fashion in the corridos that talked of them.As time passed, the traffickers’ Music was not the only area in which part of the traffickers’ increasing social presence and the expansion and diversification symbolic universe was reflected.Their religious beliefs were also of their legal businesses helped to modify the beliefs of some, the object of attention, and once again the vehicles that made probably those who had best integrated the lifestyles of the mid- these known were the corridos talking about the figure of their dle and upper classes in legitimate society.For example,Saint Jude devotion.One of these was a social bandit of the Robin Hood va- Thaddaeus,a saint of the legitimate religion,is becoming an object riety, a bandit-hero who operated in and around Culiacán, the of devotion for traffickers, who sometimes use the same outer capital of Sinaloa,in the first decade of the 20th century — the lat- symbols — tambora and norteña music — to express their fervour. ter years of Porfirio Diaz. People marked a grave with stones in Amado Carillo’s devotion to El Señor de los Cielos (The Lord of the the place where,according to legend,the authorities hanged him Heavens) was also well known.He travelled to Jerusalem and was in 1909. Jesús Malverde(37) became one of the best known local photographed carrying a cross, like Jesus Christ, along the Via myths among the people, because he had robbed the rich to Dolorosa, accompanied by his mother and other members of his share the spoils among the poor and because of the miracles that family. Rafael Caro Quintero had a special church built and dedi- they began to attribute to him after his death. He was wor- cated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus inside "La Noria",his house deep shipped outside religion for having the same attributes as Saint in the mountains in Badiraguato.In Colombia,belief is very popu- Jude Thaddaeus,a Catholic saint who was believed to solve diffi- lar among the traffickers and hired assassins of Antioquia in María cult problems. The cult already existed when the field of drug Auxiliadora,the virgin of Sabaneta(38).It has not occurred to the me- (37) La muerte de Malverde ("Malverde’s death") (Seferino Valladares): trafficking began to form — a field in which Sinaloans were dia to apply the same labels as in the case of Malverde.The Catholic "In 1909/ what a terrible thing happened/ in Culiacán, prominent from the outset. Many of the traffickers who came Church would be quick to react.Perhaps there is some truth in the Sinaloa/ Jesús Malverde died/ and when they heard down from the mountains to settle in Culiacán or who passed words of a corrido that tells of a famous trafficker who says that he the news/ the people shuddered/ It was in the time of through were of the same social extraction as the followers of only respects God and the government. It must be specified that Porfirio Diaz/ that this story took place/ for ambition and money/ his companion gave him up/ but he who Malverde.So when the traffickers adopted Malverde,the soil was in the case of Mexico,this respect also applies to civil servants from betrayed was paid back/ and heaven punished him…/ already prepared for the cult to take root among their beliefs. a certain level up in the hierarchy. All that he stole/ he shared among the poor/ and that is why today/ he is honoured so greatly/ with music The figure, the cult and the particular characteristics of a type The first traffickers to arrive in the city of Culiacán from the and candles / and bunches of flowers…" (38) See Alonso Salazar J., No nacimos pa’ semilla, of social agent who worshipped him attracted media attention be- country settled in a district on the northern outskirts called Tierra Bogota,CINEP,1993;Alonso Salazar J.and Ana María cause the traffickers themselves made sure that their lifestyle and Blanca, on one of the routes leading to the mountains.This posi- Jaramillo, Medellín. Las subcultures del narcotráfico, beliefs were ostensible.The corridos about Malverde,the offerings tion combined characteristics of the country and the city.In some Santafé de Bogotá, CINEP, 1996; Mary Roldán, in the chapel built in his honour and the tambora and norteña mu- parts it appeared to be a shanty-town annexed to the capital,with Colombia: cocaine and the "miracle" of modernity in Medellín,in Paul Gootenberg (editor),Cocaine.Global sic that accompanied certain traffickers on their visits led to the streets unpaved and lacking urban infrastructure services. In this Histories, op.cit., p.169. press calling Malverde a "narcosaint", as if the traffickers had initi- landscape, large mansions contrasted with neighbouring shacks

FORMER NEXT 51 Chapter 3 and modest houses,as did cars with United States number plates, The traffickers’ houses in the mountains and valleys of their at a time when the control of such vehicles was stricter. It looked places of birth are even more impressive than the houses that like a frontier zone. From the nineteen-seventies, a new middle- they built in urban zones. Sometimes it is not so much their size class housing estate in the west of the city, called Lomas del and luxury that impress, but the contrast between the country- Bulevar, was commonly known as Lomas del Gomeral because of side and these settlements in the middle of nowhere. Some of the traffickers who lived there. In reality, from the seventies on- these belonged to traffickers who contributed to their own leg- wards,traffickers could be seen to settle in other residential zones end during their lifetime by helping their neighbours economi- of the city where they built enormous,ostentatious mansions that cally. Sometimes they built decent houses, a square or a church. rivalled those of the rich local farmers and merchants in magnifi- Or they might invest in hitherto non-existent facilities,such as the cence.The traffickers copied the outer symbols of wealth of the diversion of a riverbed to provide drinking water and electricity, upper classes in residential areas where they had not formerly or medical care for the villagers. Such actions did exist, but were been present.In both the buildings and in their decoration a traf- not as frequent as legends of the trafficker’s philanthropy would ficker’s personal touch reflected the level of his cultural capital, have us believe, and were prompted by the individual disposi- making the newly rich easier to identify.The constant presence of tions of a few traffickers, the size of the villages and the degree armed guards,police protection and endless parties left no doubt of consanguinity and solidarity among inhabitants. For after his as to the activities of these awkward neighbours.In addition,their death the trafficker built luxurious marble mausoleums in a way of dressing,a ranchero style with gold jewellery and precious vaguely Greek style and chapels in a Roman style, like miniature stones, did not go unnoticed. It was paradoxical that they en- reproductions Saint Peter’s in the Vatican. He had these built in gaged in an illicit activity while simultaneously doing all they the cemetery of the village where he was born,in the city,and in could to ensure social visibility,instead of remaining clandestine. his own house. In that area the trafficker went further than the The only explanation possible was the historical tolerance, both traditionally wealthy,who did not consider it necessary to invest official and social,towards people who were certainly to be feared overmuch in the comfort of their soul in the afterlife. in their field of activities but who, in other fields, acted like ordinary people.They were neither more nor less arrogant than cer- As for the cinema,the adventures of certain mythical person- tain traditional wealthy people and politicians in power. In addi- alities from the traffickers’ corridos have been brought to the tion,it was decades before they encouraged a local market for the screen. But, unlike gangster films in the United States, drug-traf- drugs in which they dealt and they were careful not to spread the ficking films have ignored real cases and the best directors in the violence in their field to the rest of society.At the same time,their country have shown no interest in the theme.Television started children attended the same schools and went to the same parties to deal with drug trafficking and relations between this field and as children from the classes with which they coexisted daily. the political field in series such as Nada personal (Nothing Money laundering in the legal economy was accompanied with Personal) and Demasiado corazón (Too Much Heart), which met strategies for social laundering. From the second half of the sev- with immediate popular success. The stage play Contrabando enties,conditions changed rapidly.Large cracks started to appear (Smuggling) by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda from Chihuahua, is a in the mechanisms for institutional containment, the violence of rare event in this field.In literature,significant Sinaloan writers in- the drug-trafficking field moved onto the streets, society was as- clude Elmer Mendoza with Cada respiro que tomas ("Every breath saulted and the local market for drugs began to grow.The coex- you take") (1991),César Lopez Cuadras with La Novela inconclusa istence continued, but fear and insecurity gained ground. The de Bernardino Casablanca (The unfinished novel by Bernardino laundering processes continue.Now,the political opposition,hu- Casablanca) and Leonides Alfaro with his novels Tierra Blanca man rights organisations and other bodies in civil society have (1996), for which the director Felipe Cazals bought the filming helped to create the conditions that should enable social rights,and Los ministerios del miedo (The ministries of fear) (2000), hypocrisy to be limited and the rule of law asserted. written in collaboration with Héctor López Palma. Also out-

FORMER NEXT 52 Chapter 3 standing are Gonzalo Martré from Hidalgo with his El cadaver er- in Cuernavaca of Amado Carillo,whose fortune,according to the rante (The wandering corpse) (1993), and Gerardo Cornejo from authorities, was acquired by cocaine trafficking, there was a Sonora with his Juan Justino Judicial (Juan Justino the judge),ad- swimming pool with a mosaic poppy on the bottom. A white vertised as a "novel-corrido". Despite these exceptions, the cul- swimming pool would not have attracted attention. In Chicago, tural world seems impervious to the artistic re-creation of a phe- a museum on Al Capone was open to the public for three years nomenon that is eight decades old and has for at least 30 years before it was closed.With the enormous number of houses, ve- had a social impact beyond the regional limits of producing and hicles, weapons and jewels confiscated from the traffickers, trafficking zones.The authors mentioned are mostly from states added to the objects mentioned above, there is sufficient mate- in which the cultivation of forbidden plants and the trafficking rial to equip at least one exhibition on the phenomenon of which business are part of twentieth century history. And although they are the principal social agents.In fact, the DEA inaugurated Martré is not from Sinaloa, the story in his novel takes place in a museum in its main building dedicated to the impact of drugs that region.The beginning of the end of the monopoly of the leon society in the United States. Objects belonging to traffickers gitimate discourse about drug trafficking in Mexico corresponds from different countries are on display,along with records of cor- with the traffickers’corridos.The television series,with their pen- ridos about Mexican traffickers(40). etration and impact,have made their mark on the public by tackling the theme in its connection with politics and the army,after the real-life scandals that had shocked even the most imagina- Conclusions tive novelists. This was hardly surprising, since analysts of the country’s political history had ignored that relationship in its dif- In talk of illicit drugs, attention focuses mainly on the nega- ferent phases of development throughout the twentieth century. tive properties associated with these and their effects on health. They refused to see the history of crime as an important part of It also focuses on the activities of those social agents who break the history of power in Mexico. the prohibition laws, whether to produce, sell or consume. Statistics are prepared on the destruction of illicit crops,on drugs In the United States, the drug culture has given rise to the confiscated or burnt and of people imprisoned for offences mass production of numerous objects with the names of drugs against health. There are constant references to the measures on them,and the same has happened in Sinaloa.For several years that governments have taken to try and solve problems con- now, tee-shirts, shirts, baseball caps, hats, belts, boots, pistol hol- nected with forbidden drugs.Less — or almost nothing — is said sters, knife sheaths, cartridge holders, handbags, key-rings, jew- about the symbolic production generated in the cultural field to els, transfers and so on, have been widely available with engrav- speak of the lawbreakers from a perspective that is closer to their (39) Mis tres animales (“My three animals”) (Mario ings,drawings,print or machine- or hand-embroidery in the form world and values, or of the social impact that this phenomenon Quintero): of marijuana leaves,poppies or AK-47 submachine guns ("goat’s has had in certain regions of Mexico. "I live on three animals/ that I love as my life/ with them I earn money/ and I don’t even buy them food/ they are horns").These products are sold in local markets frequented by very fine animals/ my parrot,my cock and my nanny people from the mountains of Sinaloa and Durango. A baseball The illicit commerce has been punishable under the law since goat/ In California and Nevada/ in Texas and in cap embroidered with a parrot, a cock or a nanny goat does not the second decade of the twentieth decade.Despite that,the phe- Arizona/ and also over in Chicago/ I have quite a few mean anything special to the ordinary consumer. But anyone nomenon has boomed.Since its beginnings,the business has at- people/ who sell my animals/ more than hamburgers (39) in McDonald’s…" who knows the corrido Mis tres animales (My three animals) will tracted people of different social origins.Nevertheless,the figure (40) See:DEA press release,"DEA opens museum to know that these are metaphors for cocaine,marijuana and heroin that has been constructed of the trafficker is based essentially on the public with inaugural exhibit on illegal drugs in respectively.Representations of the coca leaf have not been ob- the characteristics that the authorities attributed to smugglers of America: a modern history", 30 April, 1999; Dolia served,perhaps because it is not cultivated in Mexico and there- humble origin.So instead of being a legal classification,generally Estévez,La mafia mexicana,star en el nuevo museo de la DEA ("The Mexican mafia, star in the new DEA fore outside the craftspeople’s knowledge of local flora, and is applicable without distinction to members of any given social museum"), El Financiero, 10/5/1999. less appealing aesthetically.In one of the confiscated residences class or territory,"trafficker" implies an archetype associated with

FORMER NEXT 53 Chapter 3 outer symbols identifying him more closely to people from the the field of popular culture was such that the phenomenon could country.Recent cases of politicians,military men and bankers con- not be politically ignored. And in their turn, other social groups nected with drug trafficking have not effected any qualitative recognised characters in the corridos that were closer to their im- changes in this archetype,which has been under construction for mediate world,who could be friends,acquaintances,family mem- decades.Traffickers are still "the others",the ones whose number bers, neighbours, and the archetype of all the fantasies and and demographic weight may give the impression that they myths of a fascinating and feared universe. make most of the profits from the illicit trade and that they hold in their hands the mechanisms to do so. However, all this is not The traffickers’ economic activity and their use of violence necessarily true, or not absolutely so. For decades, the social per- in connection with the trade are not the only things to be conception of traffickers and of their history and characteristics was demned by law-abiders and by those who would like to see the constructed by the State, which had the monopoly of legitimate rule of law enforced.The aesthetics of the traffickers’field have representation during all that time.There was no other symbolic also been criticised,censored,stigmatised and rejected by other production at the time that could compete with the categories groups that do not share their tastes. For example, their music, and patterns of perception that officers of the State and the jour- their way of dressing,the architecture of their homes and burial nalists that backed them had created around the traffickers and places and their religious preferences are visible symbols of their world.The beginnings of the break with this monopoly be- identity whose contents determine the social divisions and dif- gan to show fifty years after the prohibition laws for marijuana, ferences between those who are inside and those who are out- opium and cocaine.This started with the corrido norteño,a grass- side the trade. Symbolic conflicts move beyond the field of roots tradition with a high cultural impact on both sides of the ethics to the fields of aesthetics and mythology. It is a whole Mexico-United States border — precisely the region where most way of seeing the world and living in it. It is a subculture in of the legal and illegal commerce between the two countries which we see a certain level of self-awareness under construc- takes place — and generally in the North of Mexico. For the first tion,in a permanent state of tension with the dominant and le- time attitudes were made public that differed to those generated gitimate cultural models.Formerly,a person who dressed like a daily by State representatives on drug trafficking and its main so- cowboy was immediately identifiable as a country person from cial agents. the North.If his clothes were of superior quality — for example boots in exotic leather,trousers and shirts with international la- The period when the traffickers’ corridos exploded onto the bels and expensive hats —, if in addition he had gold and pre- existing music market coincided with a stage of rapid accumula- cious stones around his throat and wrists, on his fingers and in tion of wealth in the trafficking field and a diversification of the his belt buckle, and if he travelled in an expensive car, then in demand for drugs in the United States.It was also a phase when all probability he was a trafficker. Nowadays, in nightclubs the traffickers consolidated as a specialised social group, clearly where they play norteña and tambora music in cities of the differentiated but integrated in many ways with the legal econ- North and in the federal capital, it is common to see a great omy as well as with various aspects of the social life in their com- many people — usually young and middle-or upper-class — munities of origin and other parts of the country.They had been who dress in this way without necessarily being traffickers.But subordinated to the political field and removed from political ac- before young people started to dress like this, officers of the tivity from the outset.Recognition outside the field of the group’s Federal Judicial Police (PJF) sent to the North were already identity had been ambivalent — positive for all those who ben- copying the style,and not just for carrying out under-cover op- efited economically and negative for those who disapproved for erations. From their way of dressing and acting, it was difficult moral reasons or had been physically hurt.Now this group iden- for ordinary people to distinguish between a federal police of- tity had found a way of indirect public expression outside the po- ficer and a trafficker.While the trafficker dressed as a cowboy litical field itself, and the symbolic weight that it had acquired in has not disappeared,all the major traffickers who have been ar-

FORMER NEXT 54 Chapter 3 rested in recent years were dressed so ordinarily that no one could have suspected them because of their clothes.

The traffickers’lavish lifestyle is an imitation of the outer symbols of wealth of the regional bourgeoisie, carried to the ex- tremes that fast-earned money and megalomania can achieve.It competes with these classes in terms of economic capital(41).The traffickers’fortune or liquidity is often greater.They try to increase their cultural capital by investing in the education of their children, who attend the same elitist schools in Mexico and abroad. Their political capital has been limited by their historical subordination to the State party. Should this party disappear or weaken and not be replaced by one or several political forces with the capacity to control the traffickers, then the likelihood would immediately increase of traffickers gaining greater independence to reap the profits of their investments in political capital.Their symbolic capital, meaning recognition and admiration for what they represent to certain social groups, what they have done for such groups or what the latter attribute to them, and their economic capital, are the most striking aspects of the traffickers’ life in Mexico that the corridos have recorded and encoded,and converted in large part from their cultural capital and their emblematic identity.

(41) For a more detailed explanation of the different kinds of capital, the structure of this capital and its transformations,see:Pierre Bourdieu,La Distinction: Critique sociale du jugement,Paris,Les éditions de mi- nuit, 1979.

FORMER

55 Chapter 3 Chapter 1 On the basis of research experience carried out on this topic CERTAINTIES AND in France, I shall first explain the institutional context that has a UNCERTAINTIES crucial bearing on how the subject develops,then I shall discuss AS REGARDS the choice of methods and their experimentation, which poses ILLICIT DRUG difficult problems in this covert area,and lastly I shall summarise TRAFFICKING: some of the findings of successive studies which illustrate our RESEARCH IN THE present state of knowledge. CASE OF FRANCE Michel Schiray The Institutional Conditions Governing the Development of the Topic

It was only at the end of 1993 that the first investigations were initiated in France into the new and complex phenomenon Introduction of illicit drug trafficking.It was possible to carry them out thanks to the support of the National Cities Council (CNV),an institution For economists,quantification is an immediate need,whether with very firm roots in the field that is directly faced with a set of they are calculating at a micro-economic level or,even more,at a new problems arising in socially and economically deprived ar- macro-economic level.In a covert area like illicit drug trafficking, eas of large cities. This institution represents the mayors of quantification tools are lacking.They would presuppose the ex- medium-sized and large cities in their relations with the Prime istence of regular administrative records or general and system- Minister.It is of course no coincidence that it was the CNV which atic complementary investigations of the kind that are carried took an initiative that institutions normally in charge of drug and out very patchily in only a few countries, on the basis of the still addiction problems,or even of law and order,apparently did not limited example of the United States.Available quantitative data dare to take. As regards the first group of institutions, the most is partial, liable to fluctuation and circumstantial, when it is not important of which at the time was the DGLDT (General governed by political or more directly operational considera- Interministerial Delegation against Drugs and Drug Addiction), tions, at both national and international level. It therefore often now called the MILDT (Interministerial Mission against Drugs and lends itself to varied forms of methodological and political ma- Drug Addiction), the conventional legitimacy of aspects involv- nipulation which greatly complicate scientific investigation. My ing health, mental health and preventative factors, and the un- experience of research in this area has led me to believe that it is wieldiness of the professional bodies that have sprung up a field which requires much greater investigative efforts than of- around them have, it seems to me, stifled efforts directed at the ficial areas of the economy and of social activity,which are more other,probably more sensitive aspect of the drugs and addiction easily subjected to routine checks and therefore to scrutiny. issue,i.e.the supply or the distribution of products and their im- Qualitative research forms the basis of this approach(1). It should pact on public health (which goes without saying) and more par- (1) I first tried to explain this, in succinct form, in Michel Schiray,Illicit drug distribution organisation in make it possible to check the quantitative calculations that any ticularly their economic,social,cultural and sometimes even po- France: methodological experimentation at three lev- economist is capable of making from available basic databases, litical repercussions.The discreet presence,not to say mistrust,of els of research,in Fountain,J.(ed.):Understanding and by formulating fairly sophisticated and complete series of hy- police representatives in that institution and their intervention Responding to Drug Use: the Role of Qualitative potheses.The process of gradually refining hypotheses depends in very specialised problems did not until recently make it possi- Research,European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) Monograph. EMCCDA: directly on the knowledge that one is capable of producing and ble to bring out the real importance, for thinking on the subject Lisbon,2000. developing. and for research, of issues directly or indirectly connected with

NEXT 1 Chapter 1 the trafficking and distribution of such products(2).This may seem gether mayors and officials in charge of major European cities all the more paradoxical given that empirical attempts to evalu- who are directly confronted with the concrete problems found ate the public cost of drugs and addiction clearly show that far in urban areas. But it has not yet been given the necessary re- more money is spent on repressive police and judicial action sources for it to be able to support a veritable research pro- than on health-service and preventative action,which only con- gramme, at either national or European level. At most, it has re- firms that France(3) is now in the situation that has been experi- sulted only in training and in local authorities being able to com- enced by the United States(4).It is true that most repressive action pare their experiences. is still directed at users and only part of it at trafficking and distribution.The way that this action breaks down could be usefully On the basis of my experience of what will soon be ten years of revealed by an assessment of the cost of government action. observation,discussion and negotiation on this subject in the field of research,let me formulate a series of conclusions for discussion, As regards the law and order authorities, it can only be de- which may be defined in simplified form as follows: plored that there has been no tradition of joint work by police in- (2) To my knowledge,the only significant step taken stitutions and researchers. It is only now that such cooperation . At local level, drug trafficking, combined with the im- by the DGLDT at the time was the setting up in 1991 has really begun to get off the ground. Researchers specialising mediately visible problems of drug addiction, creates tensions of a working party,initiated and coordinated by Joao Fatela, into The Underground Drug Economy in Europe: in legal questions have paid scant or very superficial attention to which can prove intolerable for local inhabitants and authorities, a Comparative Study of Large Cities.It produced a re- the question of serious crime,in particular crime connected with who have no alternative but to confront the problem, to get to port which was presented to the Council of Europe drug trafficking(5). The IHESI (Institute of Higher Education on know it, to understand it and to come up with solutions. They with the aim of launching a European study pro- Internal Security), which was set up at the beginning of the were among the first to be interested in stepping up research gramme on the subject.Although the idea was very well received,the project never saw the light of day. 1990s, should normally have fulfilled the function of supporting into drug trafficking and its economic and social effects. The only plausible explanation for that is that it did research into questions of serious crime.But despite the numer- not get the necessary institutional support, primar- ous contacts that were made on the subject,that institution long . At national level, the repercussions of trafficking, de- ily from French representatives. Other initiatives of postponed its decision to include in its work programme a sur- spite the sometimes astoundingly high profits it generates,seem which I have been informed were on a much smaller scale than was originally planned for the topic.It was vey or research project aimed at making a real effort to discover much more diffuse and less visible.Profits can be invested and in- only in 1998 that a very modest project was launched how the trafficking and illicit distribution of drugs in France,and deed sometimes even create jobs. More usually they help to fuel by the European Union's European Monitoring indeed serious crime in general, operate(6). It did so only in 1999, monetary and financial movements.To simplify matters,it may be Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in with the launch of several major research projects.The Interior said that such movements, which take place at macro-economic Lisbon and the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg. Headed by Hans-Jörg Albrecht,it focused mainly on Ministry and other government departments more directly con- and macro-social levels, do not cause any clearly visible immedi- two large cities in Germany and Italy,and in 2000 in- cerned with the repression of drug trafficking,the Army Ministry ate victims, at least in France, where such trading only rarely re- cidentally included three others in France,Denmark (National Gendarmerie) and the Economy and Finance Ministry sults in murder. French legislation on money laundering and the and the Netherlands. (Customs), did not for their part directly initiate or support re- controls effected by TRACFIN, a specialised department of the (3) Pierre Kopp and Christophe Palle, Les Coûts publics de la drogue en France, MILDT, Paris, 1997. search work in this field.They remained very reluctant to collab- Economy and Finance Ministry, are certainly still too recent, even (4) "Géopolitique et économie politique de la orate with researchers, whereas experience in other Europen after ten years of existence,to have created a truly significant de- drogue",special issue of Futuribles:Analyse,Prévision, countries has shown that such cooperation, as long as there is terrent force, as can be seen from the final results of the opera- Prospective,N° 185,March 1994. mutual trust and respect, can prove extremely fruitful for both tions carried out, despite all the efforts put into the task, which (5) It was only when forced by other initiatives, and (7) then very tardily and very cautiously,that the CESDIP, parties . Above all, it answers a need for controlled knowledge have to be recognised.The Health and Social Affairs Ministry is in the CNRS team attached to the Justice Ministry that on the part of society in general. It is hardly surprising therefore charge of the drugs scene.As is only normal,it focuses its interest had authority to do so, was eventually forced to col- that this line of work on drug trafficking eventually got more sup- and efforts on questions of treatment, prevention, risk manage- laborate on these subjects — which it did unenthusi- port from another institution,this time European-based,special- ment and drug use management.However,its approach seems to astically.These subjects are however extremely relevant from an international point of view,even in their ising in security issues,the European Urban Security Forum.Once be very narrow and cautious when it comes to product supply institutional,diplomatic and legislative manifestations. again, this is not strictly speaking an official body. It brings to- strategies, in particular those of the pharmaceutical companies

FORMER NEXT 2 Chapter 1 that supply synthetic psychotropic products, which are now in natural origin and,increasingly,of those taken by synthetic prod- (6) Attempts were made in the early 1990s to or- greatly increasing demand. An ever larger proportion of those ucts.That does not mean we have identified the organisations ganise a research programme into money launder- products end up in illicit distribution circuits.And yet it is the min- and the people who use such routes or the scale of the traffic.We ing with the IHESI, involving the setting up of an ad hoc group made up of representatives of the insti- istry's job to control such companies and their products.The spe- have a certain degree of knowledge,though that does not mean tutions most directly concerned, including those in cialised departments of the Interior, Army and Economy and the situation is under control. But supplies reaching the French the banking sector.But in the end only one member Finance Ministries in charge of monitoring the supply and distri- border remain institutionally,and therefore informationally,more of the IHESI collaborated.The resulting work, which bution of illicit products remained,true to their tradition,discreet under control than those which, in France itself, are distributed was not directly disseminated, owes its existence (8) solely to the determination of the person concerned and cautious throughout the 1990s and even now do not seem to regions and to towns and cities, whatever their size . that there should at all costs be something to show very keen to engage in direct cooperation with researchers — for his efforts.All the indications are that that person even if they receive all the necessary ethical and moral guarantees received very little support from within the institu- — in such a way as to describe and make available to them the in- tion.The findings of this unpublished "grey" litera- The Choice of Methods ture were important at a French level and opened up formation in their possession,or simply to admit and specify what and Their Experimentation a considerable field of study, on which several re- they do not know. A gradual clearing up of this basic difficulty searchers have gradually focused. See in particular would help to better identify the specific subjects of the re- It is worth remembering that the first investigations carried Pierre Glorieux,Le Blanchiment en France,textes et ter- searcher's work, to the benefit of all concerned. Conditions now out in France into illicit drug trafficking at the end of 1993 were ritoires, a roneotyped IHESI document, 1991, and Le Blanchiment de l'argent occulte en Europe, a roneo- seem to be more favourable and to be moving in that direction. prompted by a straightforward question about problem suburbs typed IHESI document, 1992. Those findings were . At the international level, the importance of drugs in which first started as a rumour, then was repeated by local au- partly used by Michel Schiray (ed.),in Les Marchés in- worldwide relations and in relations between States resulted in thorities,in the press and eventually in several official reports,no- terdits de la drogue, "Penser la drogue, penser les major information systems being developed in a number of tably emanating from the National Assembly.It was believed that drogues", vol. 2, Paris, Edition Descartes, Sciences Sociales series,1992; and some of them were repro- countries from the 1970s on and above all from the 1980s on. such suburbs were increasingly dominated or at least affected by duced in full in Pierre Kopp (ed.), L'Economie du Most prominent of these countries was the United States,which drug money and by the appearance of mafia-like practices.It was blanchiment, Paris, Caisse des Dépôts et now acts as a world provider of information and even hands out an issue that cropped up again and again in the press and in de- Consignations — Association d'Economie Financière annual reprimands and rewards to each country depending on bates.One of the hotly debated consequences of this was that it — Cahiers Finance, Ethique, Confiance, 1995.(2) To my knowledge,the only significant step taken by the its performance as regards the fight against drugs,notably in the became increasingly difficult to implement social development DGLDT at the time was the setting up in 1991 of a area of production and trafficking.At international level,these in- policies, particularly those aimed at some of the groups of working party, initiated and coordinated by Joao formation systems were set up by United Nations institutions, youngsters most concerned, who were thought to be more at- Fatela, into The Underground Drug Economy in Europe: such as the United Nations International Drug Control tracted by the easy money to be made by trafficking than by a Comparative Study of Large Cities.It produced a report which was presented to the Council of Europe Programme (UNDCP) and the International Narcotics Control public integration programmes. Social policies had a hard time with the aim of launching a European study pro- Board (INCB),and by international police and customs organisa- confronting illegality. gramme on the subject.Although the idea was very tions,chiefly Interpol.Other organisations like the G7, by setting well received,the project never saw the light of day. up the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to deal with money As well as trying to come up with an answer to such ques- The only plausible explanation for that is that it did not get the necessary institutional support, primar- laundering issues, have also contributed complementary infor- tions, those initial investigations provided an opportunity to try ily from French representatives. Other initiatives of mation at the international level.This means that there is now out methods thought likely to provide some rigorous informa- which I have been informed were on a much smaller available a certain amount of working material at this level which tion about this field of activity,which is all the more subject to all scale than was originally planned for the topic.It was makes it possible to better identify the routes that goods have types of rumours because it is itself hidden, subjected to gov- only in 1998 that a very modest project was launched by the European Union's European Monitoring taken before entering a country.The picture is by no means com- ernment repression and above all occulted by most of the social Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in plete, and this body of information contains many mistakes and actors that come into contact with it.To quote an argument no Lisbon and the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg. approximations which open the way to all sorts of statistical, in- doubt used by both police and magistrates,but less often by so- Headed by Hans-Jörg Albrecht,it focused mainly on formational and political manipulation, as can be seen from cial scientists:"You never know if the person you're talking to knows two large cities in Germany and Italy,and in 2000 incidentally included three others in France,Denmark many available examples.In France,we have a reasonable knowl- nothing,won't say what he or she knows,or is inventing a story (pos- and the Netherlands. edge of the main geographical supply routes of illicit drugs of sibly to please you(9),but most often because people like that invent

FORMER NEXT 3 Chapter 1 such stories for themselves)." This is the fundamental method- partmentalised, closed and impenetrable market.The direct ap- (7) It should be mentioned in this connection that ological trap for which the researcher needs to be prepared proach would therefore require the specification of a complex Pino Arlacchi, the present head of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme when gathering information in this area, from both private and methodology of multiple-level interviews fulfilling at least three (UNDCP), who is also in charge of investigating or- public actors.Fear of retaliation, the negative image of denunci- essential functions:a range in the choice of interviews that makes ganised crime,is a sociologist who in the 1980s spe- ation (of being "a grass"), illegality and more generally taboos, it possible to follow and gradually piece together the logical se- cialised more particularly in the study of Italian and the imaginative potential of the subject are all factors that quence of the information gathered; a comparison of informa- mafias. Several of his publications were translated into French.At the end of that decade,he and Roger make direct investigations more complicated than in an ordinary tion through contradictory interviews in order to ensure perma- Lewis embarked on the first major European re- field of study. nent verification; and a repetition of interviews at a later date in search programme into the drug markets of several order to complement and broaden them,by increasing the rela- Italian cities (Bologna,Naples and Venice).Their find- As for the choice of methods, there are two broad options tionship of trust with the interviewee.This methodology is there- ings were reworked and analysed in France by Maria Luisa Cesoni, in Les Marchés interdits de la drogue en open to the researcher:methods that can be described as direct, fore both very sophisticated in its conception and practice, and Italie,in Michel Schiray (ed.),Les Marchés interdits de and, in contrast, indirect methods. Direct methods are probably very onerous in its overall execution. la drogue, Penser la drogue,penser les drogues,vol.2, more in the tradition of ethnologists and sociologists,and involve Paris, Edition Descartes, Sciences Humaines series, gathering information directly from people involved in or close Indirect methods are based on forms of knowledge chiefly ac- 1992. (8) It should be remembered that in this respect an to trafficking (drug traffickers and users,first of all,then their fam- quired and developed by specialised institutions or institutions exceptionally useful source of information has been ily, friends and acquaintances, and finally their neighbours and that come into contact with drug problems.The police depart- available, particularly in France: the work and pub- people present in the territorial, social or commercial environments, the National Gendarmerie, Customs and the justice de- lications of the Observatoire Géopolitique des ment of trafficking, including such curiously powerful figures as partments are of course those most concerned with trafficking Drogues (Geopolitical Monitoring Centre for Drugs) (OGD). This NGO is notable for its remarkable apartment block caretakers and supermarket staff in the case of problems. It should be noted in passing that both in institutions achievement in gathering, analysing and dissemi- local investigations).The ethnological approach tends mostly to which treat drug addicts and in social institutions specialising nating information in France and worldwide focus on a small population group in a restricted space. Such more particularly in the social development of young people,staff throughout the 1990s. Its work was at all times an methods require rather a lot of work and time.The volume of ob- are careful, in order not to jeopardise their own mission, to keep indispensable source for the most strictly academic research institutions.It was most unfortunate that it servations and analyses carried out, which are without doubt their distance,particularly in terms of knowledge,from the area of was forced to close down at the beginning of 2000 broadly significant at a social and cultural level, does not how- the drug problem that is the subject of the greatest repression: because of inadequate institutional support. The ever tell us much about the organisation and workings of drug distribution and trafficking.This accurately reflects the conflicts OGD's staff intended to continue their work by try- markets in France,not even at city level(10).Based on thorough in- which exist in the field between repressive policies and policies ing to streamline its international network, which was present in almost 100 countries.I naturally urge vestigations in some communities,research revealed remarkably designed to treat drug addicts or social policies aimed at preven- readers to consult the ten or so volumes published well the movements that were characteristic of certain urban,in- tion and integration. It also points up the difficulties involved in by the OGD and its staff, who throughout those terurban and cross-border spaces(11).The fact remains that there weaving together problems which should, particularly at local years performed the invaluable task of bringing out is always a clear discrepancy between researchers' aims.The eth- level, be subject to a single policy.That would seem to be con- an annual report on the state of the drugs problem worldwide (under various titles and with different nological approach provides us with information about a rather firmed, in the case of France, by the disappointing results of the publishers). This recent turn of events must be a small segment of the market, whereas the economic approach highly promising experiment of the CCPD (Communal source of concern,at a time when companies mush- requires an understanding of the organisation and dynamics of Delinquency Prevention Councils). room out of nowhere and financial aid is lavished on the whole system. Simpler questionnaire-based investigations information and communication start-ups.The OGD is regarded, even at very official levels, as the only carried out with users,and sometimes dealers or friends,produce The working experience I have had over a period of years in source of independent international information on conventional, very selective and in the end superficial answers. this field has shown that, despite the imaginativeness and en- the subject, alongside that of the United States ad- Above all they demonstrate that each person taken individually, thusiasm of researchers, the lack of resources allocated by re- ministration and the United Nations Organisation. even someone fairly deeply involved in the distribution of drugs, search institutions and bodies in charge of drug and drug addic- (9)This has sometimes been historically true of the discipline of ethnology in particular and,as far as I know, knows very little about aspects that go beyond their strictly per- tion problems make it increasingly impossible not to have to rely of the French specialists who so effectively thought sonal contacts.This is a logical result of the extreme segmenta- on a working relationship of cooperation with repressive bodies and theorised about the Dogon legends they were tion of information that is characteristic of a systematically com- such as the police and the judiciary as a methodological basis told by local people in Mali a few decades ago. FORMER NEXT 4 Chapter 1 aimed at acquiring a rigorous and significant knowledge of drug That first and totally exploratory work aimed, within a very markets and their organisation. Even if the police and the judi- limited three to six-month period of investigation, to test from a ciary do not use the same investigative methods as social science methodological point of view the quality and relevance of all the researchers, the resources made available and the results ob- information sources likely to be exploited in order to acquire tained are so disproportionate that researchers have no option knowledge of this secret area of activity.Sources were tested in- but to recognise their limitations, to be modest about their abil- tensively in six districts of three large cities (Marseille,Paris,Lille) ity to learn and reveal, and to learn to exploit information they by four highly specialised teams of researchers(13),and all sources have at their disposal or have obtained from specialised institu- could be used within a restricted time for gathering the infor- tions, by reinterpreting and complementing it in line with their mation necessary for a reasonable knowledge of the subject. It (10) The most significant work done in France in- own objectives. emerged from the very extensive interaction of direct and indi- cludes Patricia Bouhnik's thesis on a group of users/dealers,Le Monde social des usagers de drogues rect methods that some of the most stable and most accessible, dures en milieu urbain défavorisé,a sociology thesis su- Information produced and published by police depart- if very incomplete,sources were court records,as long as they in- pervised by Robert Castel, Paris VIII University, 1994. ments is restricted to a statistical enumeration of arrests re- cluded police investigations. Direct methods, involving investi- See also the article derived from it, Consommateurs sulting from the use, trafficking and seizure of narcotics. The gations with questionnaires or individual interviews with drug d'héroïne en milieu urbain défavorisé,in Vivre avec les drogues,Communications,N° 62,1996,Le Seuil. OCRTIS (Central Office for the Repression of Illicil Trafficking in users, their friends and even individual people or institutional (11) See the work of Alain Tarrius, Fin de siècle incer- Narcotics) collects all the data put together by the police de- staff in charge of their medical and social treatment, confirmed taine à Perpignan: drogues,pauvreté,communautés partment, the National Gendarmerie and Customs. This enu- that this is an area where their knowledge is very patchy. Direct d'étrangers,jeunes sans emploi et renouveau des civil- meration indicates routine, basic and individualised data, and methods applied to traffickers required complex and lengthy in- ités dans une ville moyenne française, Perpignan, Editions du Trabucaire, 1997, and, more recently, says absolutely nothing in particular about such phenomena as vestigations.This led me to construct a methodology which used Alain Tarrius and Lamia Missaoui,Héroïne et cocaïne networks, organisation or market dynamics. But it does never- court records, complemented by police information, to acquire de Barcelone à Perpignan:des économies souterraines theless suggest the main routes and geographical channels knowledge of the field in question. Its results can subsequently ethniques de survie à la généralisation des trafics taken by products entering the country, and makes it possible be broadened and filled out by using direct methods. transfrontaliers de proximité, OFDT report, 1999. These remarkable works seem to me to make the to localise the main national markets.This extreme caution in most directly useful contribution to research of an putting out information does not properly reflect the potential At the beginning of the 1990s,attention in France focused in- economic nature. and the reserves of knowledge that exist in such institutions. tensely on the scale that drug trafficking had taken on in certain (12) This extension of research is more or less the But that knowledge is diffuse, unexploited, fragmented and deprived areas on the outskirts of large cities.While confirming same as that suggested in Michel Schiray,Les filières- stupéfiants: trois niveaux,cinq logiques.Les stratégies used for exclusively operational purposes.The scientific chal- the powerful social impact of such activity on life in the suburbs, de survie et le monde des criminalités,in Géopolitique lenge seems to me to be that we must learn to share that pub- especially among young and very young people, investigations et économie politique de la drogue, a special issue of lic asset among bodies with different aims. did not bear out the importance that had been attributed to it Futuribles: Analyse, Prévision, Prospective, N° 185, on a financial plane, notably as regards income distribution, the March 1994. (13)This research resulted in a publication:National Cities circulation of money and local investment.It emerged that there Council,L'Economie souterraine de la drogue,Paris,1994. Research Experience in France were two main organisational models.One of them represented The research,coordinated at the Maison des Sciences de and its Findings local markets predicated on the coexistence of small groups of l'Homme (Human Sciences House) by Michel Schiray, traffickers who shared out points of sale, replaced each other brought together four teams of researchers:the Groupe de Recherche et d'Analyse du Social et de la Sociabilité Field research experience as regards drug trafficking began when there was a police crackdown, and consisted mainly of (the Group for the Research and Analysis of Social Issues at the end of 1993,with some exploratory research carried out in young people with firm roots in those areas. No marked ten- and Sociability)(GRASS/CNRS), headed by Michel problem city areas, with the National Cities Council. It was grad- dency towards concentration or the formation of structured Joubert and Monique Weinberger, the LASTREE- ually extended to a wider territorial area so that a start could be dominant groups was observed at the time — though in the IFRESI/CNRS headed by Dominique Duprez,the Clinique Liberté (Liberty Clinic),headed by Anne Coppel,and the made on describing and better understanding the configura- light of my latest investigations this would no longer seem to be CIRED (International Centre for Research into the tions of the organisation of trafficking at the national level, with the case. Links with the outside world were mostly fragmented, Environment and Development)/CNRS (National its international link-ups(12). and it could not be argued that such groups were integrated to Scientific Research Centre),headed by Michel Schiray. FORMER NEXT 5 Chapter 1 any great extent in criminal organisations operating at a higher tion, which have so far not been the subject of much study, cer- territorial level.This widespread model would seem to confirm tainly go some way towards explaining this situation.The coexis- the hypothesis of open and competing local markets. It seemed tence in a single locality of that model and the model of ethnic rather typical of the organisation of trafficking by young people groups in the suburbs is certainly more liable to cause conflict,be- in the suburbs.While it was clear that such traffickers showed a cause the conditions of competition may sometimes be changed, marked tendency to act with increased professionalism in their notably as a result of lower prices made possible by slimming particular area of activity,there were no signs that they were ca- down distribution circuits or lowering product quality. pable of becoming integrated into local economic life through investment. Investigations carried out in the suburbs, then extended to larger areas of the outskirts of the three large cities(14) did not (14) This second phase of research,entitled Activité il- The other model frequently observed consisted of more in- clearly reveal any involvement by traditional criminal organisa- légales liées au trafic de drogues au niveau local,was carried out in the wake of the preceding exploratory re- tegrated groups formed along ethnic, family and community tions, notably from the "underworld", in these drug markets. search with the National Cities Council and help from lines. This model was more stable in nature, and had a greater Local distribution networks seemed relatively disconnected from the DGLTD (Délégation Générale à la Lutte contre la tendency to generate local monopolistic situations. It was more them.These networks of a new kind seemed rather fragmented Drogue et la Toxicomanie/ State Organisation in structured, and tended more to rely on outside and dependent and not very well structured, apart from a few exceptions which Charge of the Fight against Drugs and Drug Addiction). Coordinated at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme labour,chiefly made up of illegal immigrants (or people claiming were not studied comprehensively enough. At most, there were by Michel Schiray,it brought together five teams of re- to be so) recruited from their communities of origin.This model a few isolated cases of people once active in more traditional searchers from the GRASS/CNRS, headed by Michel used a more explicit strategy of financial accumulation. But as criminal areas,such as holding up banks or procuring,who went Joubert and Monique Weinberger, the LASTREE- was shown by investigations in the suburbs of both Lille and over to drug trafficking. But they tended to act in an individual IFRESI/CNRS headed by Dominique Duprez and Michel Kokoreff, the Ethnology and Mediterranean Marseille, that accumulation was not channelled into the areas capacity and not as a member of an organisation.These findings Research Centre/CNRS, headed by Marc Mariottini, where the traffickers operated,but rather towards their countries led serious questions to be asked, particularly in Paris and the IREP,headed by Rodolphe Ingold and Mohamed of origin.This model tallied, then, with typical strategies and or- Marseille, about the role of suburbs in the drug markets of large Touffirt, and the CIRED/CNRS, headed by Michel ganisational models used by immigrants planning to return to cities and the position of the various networks in distribution Schiray with Nacer Lalam.It was not possible to complete that research because of problems of relations their home country or to settle there in the short or medium channels. between institutions.It nevertheless formed the ba- term. sis of five unpublished reports, produced in 1995 A second phase of research accordingly set out to extend the and 1996,which can be consulted at the MILDT (for- The open and competitive model of young people in deprived local approach to the suburbs and the whole urban area.This was merly DGLDT), at the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), at the Maison des suburbs was capable of generating violence as a means of occu- attempted, in an exploratory way, in Paris on the basis of court Sciences de l'Homme,at the "Psychotropes,Politique pying markets,but investigations in several places showed that in records(15).It was in fact in the city itself — the centre of the capi- et Société" GDR of the CNRS, or by applying to the French suburbs such violence,in its extreme forms (notably mur- tal — that the most significant cases and networks as regards the various teams involved. der), was mostly of a sporadic nature and shortlived. In the sub- criminal organisation of drug markets were found.The main char- Some of the work was expanded, at this level of research, as for example in: Dominique Duprez and urbs, groups of traffickers sometimes showed themselves capa- acteristic of this city-centre trade was a surprising international- Michel Kokoreff,Le Monde des drogues,Paris,Editions ble of coming to agreements with each other, or even cooperat- isation of networks:traffickers who came before the courts within de l'Aube, 2000. ing.That was understandable because of the youngsters' origin a single year were of 47 different nationalities; one third of the (15) It was carried out as part of the research project, and their shared knowledge of their area.In this respect,the most networks were "national" networks of various nationalities, and L'Organisation du trafic et des marchés de drogues illicites et leur liaison avec les économies officielles et typical example studied was that of the market in the commune two thirds of the networks were "mixed", i.e. made up of people non officielles — Rapport sur l'état de la recherche, of Bagneux — mainly a heroin supermarket — on the southern of different nationalities, with a majority of French.The traffick- CIRED/Maison des Sciences de l'Homme —Higher outskirts of Paris, where the last major clash between traffickers ers' trade links with countries outside France were much more Education and Research Ministry, Paris, December took place as long ago as the beginning of the 1990s.But it was a marked and diversified than in the suburbs. Transactions and 1998.This research, headed by Michel Schiray, was carried out with Nacer Lalam and with the help of case of heroin pushers replacing cannabis dealers,who have now most seizures were greater in volume,which would suggest that Chokri Bensalem. been largely excluded.The French police's methods of interven- the city centre played a more important role in intermediate dis-

FORMER NEXT 6 Chapter 1 tribution than the suburbs. Finally, various cases in the capital This is a new and important research finding in France.It con- showed that the "underworld" and traditional organised crime firms that serious criminals in France are also involved in the were active in wholesale distribution in Paris and the greater French drug market, alongside networks of traffickers from an Paris area, but that Paris was also a centre of redistribution from immigrant background and young people in the suburbs. The the producing countries to other European and even North specialised authorities have difficulty in publicly recognising this American markets.These were transactions which led to verita- state of affairs.The methodology devised to arrive at this finding ble money laundering operations:property investment in France combined direct and indirect techniques more exhaustively than and abroad; currency, banking and financial investments; and I have ever had occasion to do before.This methodology could above all investment in companies,not only in the gambling and very usefully be applied more broadly to all the drug markets in entertainment sectors,but in industry,even in such traditional ar- France and would make it possible to understand better the re- eas as textiles and clothing.These are the kind of transactions lationships and hierarchies which may exist between the various which those leading the fight against money laundering at the types of networks that share out the markets and their various Economy and Finance Ministry do their best,against all the odds, segments — mainly made up of local youth networks,ethnic im- to unmask by financial means. migrant networks,and the both traditional and new networks of organised crime. It is along those lines that research is now di- A third phase of research,this time not restricted to specific lo- rected. It is focusing on and getting to know better the organi- cations,made it possible to improve even further the study of the sation at the top of the system of illicit drug distribution in France various networks' coexistence,competition and interpenetration. — an organisation about which very little is known — and its This very recent research(16) approached the organisation of the economic and financial repercussions. Finally innovative re- drug trade from the angle of a new social phenomenon, the search(17) has recently been undertaken on the place of traditional "techno" music movement. It revealed the existence of new dis- French organised crime (the "grand banditisme" in administra- tribution networks among music producers,organisers of events tive French terminology) in drug trafficking.It shows — what we and drug users. In this sector of the drug market, it was clearly were not able to reach at local levels the strong presence at the shown that a multiplicity of "direct cross-border networks" spe- upperlevel of the business,since the beginning of the drug-story, cialising in ecstasy and involving new traffickers, most of them of the organised and traditional networks specialised in all types young, had sprung up.Those traffickers got their supplies of ec- of criminal activities, highly connected with international crimi- stasy from sources mainly in the Netherlands, but also in Spain, nal groups and organisations, largely associated with represen- and distributed the pills during rave parties.Other products were tatives of official economic sectors and of public specialised in- included in this movement's specialised networks.The most im- stitutions,even also to some politicians at the local and national portant finding of that research was to my mind to have shown level. how, around those new and marginal networks, other more (16) Colombié thierry,Lalan Nacer et Michel Schiray: specifically criminal networks were organised by the "under- Drogues et techno,les trafiquants du rave,Paris,Stock, world" of traditional crime in large French cities,more particularly 2000.This book resulted from a research carriedout in the south.Those networks are currently believed to dominate with the Observatoire Français des drogues et de la markets in many regions, as regards not only ecstasy but a good toxicomanie (OFDT). (17) Colombié Thierry,Lalam Nacer,Schiray Michel,Les proportion of the other drugs consumed during such parties — acteurs du grand banditisme français au sein des in particuar hashish, marijuana and cocaine. One of the explana- économies souterraines liées au trafic de drogues : pop- tions for this would seem to be that the "techno" movement is a ulations,organisations,pratiques,mécanismes de con- much more important phenomenon in discos and night clubs, trôle des marchés et gestion des espaces de trafics ré- gionaux et transfrontaliers,Institut des Hautes Etudes very often run by the "underworld",than at rave parties,which are de la Sécurité Intérieure (IHESI),Paris,2000. organised more sporadically by the originators of the movement.

FORMER

7 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 "Economic and financial crime" embraces the more reassuring FROM THE DISCOVERY sphere of official activities, companies and public or State ad- OF DRUG TRAFFICKING ministrations.This world is of course very different, as are the il- TO THE RECOGNITION legal and criminal practices involved. And yet many intercon- OF ECONOMIC AND nections can exist between the two,as will be seen from the pre- FINANCIAL CRIME: sent chapter,in particular the way that all profits from these crim- THE VARIOUS STAGES inal activities, whether based in a legal or an illegal framework, OF A DECADE OF are channelled into the same money-laundering circuits and, FRANCOPHONE sometimes,into genuine investment.This is what makes present STUDIES ON THE anti-money-laundering policies particularly difficult to imple- SUBJECT ment, and research increasingly complicated. Michel Schiray Drug Trafficking and its Economic, Social and Political Implications (1)

The "war on drugs" that has been waged in the United States — for the first time more than 80 years ago — has spread In France — despite some surprising delays — as well as in throughout the world as a result of the imposition of a global other European countries and elsewhere, the 1990s eventually prohibition system. Its intensity has however varied geographi- proved to be a fruitful decade as regards successive discoveries cally and above all historically.The increased use of drugs in the of the major impact of drug trafficking and of economic and fi- 1960s and 1970s led President Nixon to call for a new "declara- nancial crime on the economic,social and political development tion of war" in the early 1970s.His initiative remained modest and of societies in both the North and the South. It is interesting to controversial during that decade, in the course of which many note that,while drug trafficking was initially the main focus of at- North American states even decriminalised marijuana. But the tention, it was almost immediately related to other broader is- drugs issue had already become a worrying enough concern to sues, such as the proliferation of major criminal organisations, be regarded as a "major problem" for society and the interna- some of them Mafia-like in nature, regional conflicts and other tional community. phenomena like money laundering, corruption and tax havens. But during the 1990s, in addition to studies more specifically fo- It was at the beginning of the 1980s that the "war on drugs" cused on drug trafficking and its various related issues, a much was abruptly given a new boost by President Reagan.It has since (1) The United Nations Drug Control Programme wider range of work soon began to be published on very varied gathered momentum, as can be seen for example from the in- (UNDCP) published the first major report on drugs, types of activity and illegal economic and financial practices that crease in public spending on it, involving direct intervention in entitled World Report on Drugs, London/New York: can be defined as coming under the heading of "economic and the producing countries and an intensification of the crackdown Oxford University Press, 1997.The report contains a financial crime". This covers a much greater and more varied on trafficking,both internationally and at home.That new impe- wealth of information and issues for debate. Nacer Lalam's analysis of it in the review Monde en range of phenomena. Drug trafficking could constitute one of tus affected European countries only later, and in a consistently Développement,N° 158,2000,is well worth reading. the traditional forms of criminal activity,with which — in the case contradictory manner,since some of them have always tried out There is no discussion here of work on drug traffick- of certain groups specialising more particularly in crime — it was more liberal and less repressive solutions, alongside the Dutch ing in France.It is discussed in Michel Schiray's article often connected,such as hold-ups,armed robbery,procuring,ex- model of permissiveness and supportiveness as regards drug ad- in the present issue,"Certitudes et incertitudes sur le trafic illégal de drogues: enseignements de la tortion,protection rackets,kidnapping,illegal gambling,traffick- diction.This has been a constant subject of debate in national recherche en France". ing in arms, human beings and live organs, and smuggling. and international forums.

NEXT 8 Chapter 2 Whereas the volume of work on the various aspects of drugs In this respect Coca Coke, by Alain Labrousse and Alain increased very sharply on the other side of the Atlantic from the Delpirou (1986), marked an important new step forward in 1960s on, European and, more particularly, French literature fo- France. It broke that silence. On the basis of thorough fieldwork cused mainly on the clinical aspects of drug addiction.It is inter- in the Andean countries (coca/cocaine), it demonstrated that a esting to note,therefore,that,from the end of the 1980s on,there rigorous approach is possible in this dark and dangerous area of began to appear works by journalists,militants,professionals and study,and that one can,with all due caution,lay the foundations researchers which extended the debate to the social, economic of an economic, social and political analysis that transcends the and political aspects of drug use and trafficking, with a particu- circumstantial analysis of individual and local contexts. lar emphasis on their international dimensions.Those works form an essential part of a public debate which is now highly topical, Between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the but was long restricted to specialised circles. 1990s a series of other works on drugs in general were published in France,notably Le Droit de la drogue,a brilliant work by And yet pioneering work was done in France, from the begin- Francis Caballero (1989), but also more specifically on traffick- ning of the 1970s on,which cannot be ignored,and whose full sig- ing,its geopolitical implications and the criminal organisations nificance has perhaps become clear today. First of all, two re- that operate internationally. A work by two investigative jour- searchers, Catherine Lamour and Michel Gutelman (1972), clearly nalists, Jean-François Couvrat and Nicolas Pless (1989), also demonstrated in their book, Les Grandes manoeuvres de l'opium, greatly helped to get the debate going by producing the first the economic,military and above all diplomatic stakes in,and im- overview of the economic implications of drug trafficking,arms plications of, opium and heroin trafficking on the evidence of trading and tax havens. Southeast Asia,at the initiative of the United States.While making all the necessary qualifications,they undoubtedly laid the founda- One book in particular, La Drogue, une économie dynamisée tions of a prospective vision of what can still be observed today at par la répression, by Charles-Henri de Choiseul Praslin (1991), international level.At a completely different level,in his analysis of broke new ground in France by offering an in-depth approach the French experience of the "French connection" between the to the role of supply in the growth of drug markets and to the Marseille "milieu", the Sicilian mafia and its more powerful North actual effects of repression.He re-examines,from a fresh angle, American counterpart (heroin trafficking), Alain Jaubert (1973) the debate on prohibition systems initiated by American au- painted,in D comme drogue,a hitherto unparalleled picture of the thors and more recent French authors,such as the already men- connections that existed between serious crime circles,economic tioned Francis Caballero.Three sets of arguments are set forth circles and local political circles. Despite its inevitable limitations which call into question the repressive policies currently im- for academics and professionals, this exceptionally courageous plemented by governments.First,repression has both a boost- piece of investigative journalism at least threw considerable light ing effect on demand (high prices force consumers to become on the problems that contemporary societies have more than ever dealers, which intensifies sales efforts and increases demand), to face.Jaubert's work has so far helped one to understand the pre- a regulatory effect on prices and markets (depending on police sent sociopolitical structuring of the city of Marseille and its reaction),and an effect which helps the world of crime to become gional,national and international ramifications.But it is even more integrated in the official economy as a result of the profits it significant for our understanding of how real society works. And makes. Secondly, with prohibition, drugs have constituted an yet neither of these two works was followed up by other re- unparalleled source of reinforcement for all major criminal or- searchers. On the contrary, such unacademic subjects were sur- ganisations in the various regions of the world.That source has rounded by a deafening silence in France, particularly on the part helped to create a "narcocracy" capable of confronting States of criminologists and political analysts. Economists understand- or coming to terms with them. The third set of arguments ably felt somewhat unqualified to deal with such questions. against prohibition concerns the creation for society of the

FORMER NEXT 9 Chapter 2 drug addict problem through products which earlier societies extremely sophisticated fieldwork studies but overall analyses of customarily controlled.The drug addict is today faced with four certain countries and regional areas.The point Labrousse makes forms of dependency: in addition to physiological and psychi- in this work is spelled out much more clearly than in his previous cal dependencies, there are economic and socio-cultural de- book. His investigations show that in all parts of the world, pendencies. Choiseul Praslin, who became president of the whether they are areas where poppies, coca or cannabis are Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues (World Geopolitics of grown,drugs that are a survival crop for many Third-World farm- Drugs — OGD), asks us to take a long hard look at drugs and at ers have now attracted the interest of major criminal organisa- the foundations of current policies. A lawyer by profession, he tions. Drug trafficking is widely tied up with arms trading. draws on a very wide range of areas,from the economy and so- Together, they enable such organisations to grow rich and thus ciology to history and anthropology,to draw up the arguments increase their economic and political power in government cir- that are needed for an analysis of the complexity of the drug cles. Some States are directly involved, and others, even in the phenomenon in our contemporary societies. But he also calls North,turn a blind eye.Fortunately,this very rewarding and stim- on us to think more about the economics of drugs, since "our ulating journey does not restrict itself to the countries of the societies want to sacrifice everything to economics". This book, South. A large part of the book is devoted to trafficking, money- which was published by the CNRS, will remain a benchmark laundering and policies in the United States and Europe. The work, even though it very soon attracted controversy from ev- work certainly remained for a long time one of the best docu- ery quarter. mented books on the subject,containing much new and,on the whole,rigorously selected information.It has now become an in- The European drug information campaign, which was initi- ternational reference work, even if it is bound to raise some ated at the end of the 1980s by a large number of NGOs with the points of controversy as to the authenticity and analysis of cer- support of international, European and national official organi- tain facts.It makes lively and very stimulating reading. sations, undoubtedly mobilised public opinion and governments. Its effect was soon visible as regards publications. The A qui profite la cocaïne?, the work of two investigative jour- book that grew out of the campaign,Géopolitique de la drogue, nalists, Mylène Sauloy and Yves Le Bonniec (1992), is also of in- which was edited by Guy Delbrel (1991),contains a series of con- terest to academics. As the title suggests, the book focuses on tributions written during the campaign.The book illustrates the the situation resulting from coca/cocaine production in the diversity of issues raised by drugs from the point of view of use, Andean countries, which is chiefly linked to the United States. production,trafficking,policies and regional conflicts all over the But the argument vigorously defended by the authors is more world.It constitutes a corpus of heterogeneous material,of vary- general.Drug money does not just benefit traffickers.Drugs are ing and often local interest, which can be used as a basis for de- also a weapon for leading States and international financial cir- bate on many issues,and in particular on the policies that should cles.In the case of Northern States such as the United States,the be implemented,by drawing attention to substitution policies in "war on drugs" is a pretext used to justify their intervention — the producing countries and the legalisation of drug use. sometimes armed intervention — in their zones of influence.It is above all a foreign policy tool.For financial circles, drug trad- That same year saw the publication of La Drogue, l'argent et ing is an extraordinary source of capital accumulation which les armes, by Alain Labrousse (1991), who was one of the organ- they are reluctant to combat.Today, the East/West confronta- isers of the campaign. Whereas his earlier book, mentioned tion has been replaced by a North/South confrontation. above, was restricted to the question of cocaine in the Andean Cocaine is part of that trend and is used to heighten that con- countries, Labrousse takes us this time on a journey round the frontation in Northern public opinion. To back up their argu- world and provides us with completely new information about ment, the authors have marshalled a considerable amount of the situation in the various regions.The book comprises not only documentary evidence, the fruit of several years of investiga-

FORMER NEXT 10 Chapter 2 tions, a systematic study of newspapers, and an analysis of gion of the world.But unlike reports put out by international or- works and publications.The quality and the wealth of informa- ganisations such as the UNDCP and national organisations, tion in the book are certainly remarkable, and make it very en- mostly in the United States, such as the NNICC and the INCSR, joyable to read. From beginning to end the book bristles with the book did not focus mainly on general data as regards pro- incisive observations and interpretations.The radical axe the duction,consumption,seisures and epidemiological indicators. authors have to grind can be irritating and may be regarded as Its aim was rather to make available previously unpublished in- "over the top" in some quarters. But it does nevertheless pose formation in an area that was strictly filtered by national and in- a number of fundamental questions that need to be included ternational administrations. It strove, therefore, to select data in the debate. and carry out analyses which made it possible to assess the changing role of criminal organisations in drug production and In 1991, the Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues (OGD) trafficking,their increased economic and political power,the cir- was set up in Paris.Throughout the 1990s, this NGO was an ex- culation of dirty money,the stance of governments and the role ceptional and regular source of information,analysis and,on oc- of drugs in regional conflicts.The book showed,for example,that casion,research on the subject of drug trafficking and its national 1992 was a year when production increased sharply and spread and international repercussions.When the OGD was closed down to new countries in every region of the South and East, when at the beginning of 2000,its management very legitimately con- new criminal organisations rose to prominence, particularly in tended that it had gradually come to be recognised,even by na- Eastern Europe and Africa, and when drug money was used in tional and international authorities, as the only independent in- new regional conflicts in such areas as the former Yugoslavia, stitution in the world which provided information about the Somalia and the Caucasus.The book was rounded off by some global drug situation, alongside the two only other official general analyses (of regional conflicts, the fight against money sources of information,the United States Administration and the laundering and the domestic policy of the United States).The United Nations Organisation. Even today, it still has specialised work was an invaluable working tool for any reader interested correspondents in almost 100 countries. in monitoring geopolitical developments and the situation in countries most affected by such problems. Two years after being set up, the OGD published two books. The first, La Planète des drogues, edited by Alain Labrousse and During that same period, there were also several initiatives Alain Wallon (1993), was a collection of papers given at a sym- that attempted to devise some more deliberately scholarly ap- posium attended by some of the greatest specialists on such proaches to the problem."Drogues et Développement",the special subjects from various parts of the world.The book provided a issue of the Revue Tiers-Monde edited by Pierre Salama and Michel powerful introduction to the various aspects of the subject,par- Schiray (1992), broke new ground in this respect.Noting that the ticularly as regards the future work of the whole research com- social sciences both in Europe and in France had lagged behind munity.The OGD's second book (1993), La Drogue, nouveau dé- in their treatment of the subject, the editors set out to present a sordre mondial, was already designed to be a first annual report series of contributions,some of them theoretical,others more ap- on the geopolitics of drugs. It was put together on the basis of plied, aimed at stimulating research efforts in economic and so- information regularly supplied by a network of correspondents ciopolitical areas.Three articles in particular attempted to make in every region of the world.Some of that information was pub- an overall evaluation of the drug problem at international level. lished each month in a trilingual bulletin sent out to very spe- German Fonseca made an economic assessment of the situation cialised subscribers, La Dépêche Internationale des Drogues.The on the world drug market, and attempted to quantify volumes. book, then, was of a new kind and introduced a new working Pierre Kopp proposed a theoretical interpretation of the way sup- method. It contained an assessment of the state of drug pro- ply is structured, based on the notion of networks. Ethan duction and trafficking and of their consequences in every re- Nadelmann showed how the international system of narcotics

FORMER NEXT 11 Chapter 2 prohibition came to be set up historically, with the United States tain unofficial sources of information. It was based on research playing a leading role.Two other articles brought economic the- specially carried out in four European countries, the United ory into play. Pierre Kopp sought to define the theoretical bases Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and France, as well as in the on which the economics of drugs could be founded, and con- United States.It showed as precisely as possible the limitations of cluded that caution was needed in the use of available decision- available information sources,whether official or unofficial.Above support instruments.In his examination of the economics of cor- all, it revealed the gulf that separates the United States from ruption,Jean Cartier Bresson showed for the first time the limita- European countries as regards the elaboration of tools and re- tions of the neo-classical approach and explained why the eco- search for examining such phenomena — though that did not nomic theory of corruption has yet to be elaborated.The special mean that the United States should serve as a model for the issue was rounded off by four case studies of a more applied na- European countries.The book,then,stressed the need for Europe ture dealing with regional questions. Blandine Destremau to make an effort to construct a basic information infrastructure, demonstrated the traditional role played by khat in Yemeni soci- a perfectly feasible project once any institutional barriers have ety. Maria Luisa Cesoni assessed drug use and trafficking on the been removed, so that these complex issues can be investigated African continent. Alain Labrousse, focusing on one region of and subjected to theorisation.The book was produced as part of Pakistan,analysed the reasons for the increase in poppy growing the Association Descartes' "Drugs and psychoactive substances" and its place in the peasant economy.Vincent Brakelaire gave an programme, which was carried out in 1991 and 1992, and which overall assessment of the programmes for encouraging farmers resulted in a much-remarked structuring of research in France's to grow alternatives to coca in Bolivia, which pose more general various social sciences disciplines on the theme of drugs,with,no- problems of international cooperation. This issue of the Revue tably, the setting up in 1994 of the CNRS's "Psychotropics, Politics Tiers-Monde was the first example of a leading academic review and Society" research group, which is still active today. normally devoted to development issues focusing on the drug Unfortunately,what was originally an interesting and original ini- problem. It showed that despite the methodological difficulties tiative has in the past few years attributed less importance — specific to this field of research it is an area that can be subjected probably under the pressure of state funding bodies — to such to theorisation, treated with rigour and even assessed. In answer issues as supply,trafficking,product markets and serious crime,as to the often journalistic or militant literature, so necessary to the well as the international relations and economic and social de- theme of drugs, that was beginning to flourish at the time, the velopment issues that are related to the problem. Revue Tiers-Monde helped to demonstrate that such issues were legitimate subjects of investigation by universities and research Two years later, Pierre Kopp and Michel Schiray (1994), in institutions.The field is so vast that the two approaches, far from "Géopolitique et économie politique de la drogue", a special issue cancelling each other out,can easily complement each other and of the review Futuribles, which they edited, gave a first report on be mutually beneficial. the advances made in "academically and scientifically orientated" thinking on the subject. The issue set out to deal successively That same year, Michel Schiray (1992), in collaboration with with questions of geopolitics, drug supply at micro- and macro- Maria Luisa Cesoni, produced Les Marchés interdits de la drogue, economic levels, drug use and drug control policies. On the the groundwork for elaborating an "economics of drugs" to which geopolitical front,Alain Labrousse emphasised the startling con- scientifically reasonable analytical instruments could be applied. tradictions that exist between talk about the "war on drugs" and This is a field which undoubtedly poses a challenge to scientific the compromises that are unobtrusively concluded in interna- knowledge. Invisibility is the chief characteristic not only of sup- tional relations between States leading the fight against drugs ply and demand,but of the financial flows that result from profits and those which quite openly condone such trading. He also and of the organisation of markets.The work's prime aim was to showed how trafficking had increased in order to support most gather all the data and research available,without ruling out cer- regional armed conflicts, and sometimes even to become their

FORMER NEXT 12 Chapter 2 main factor. In a broad analysis of the production and distribu- nent and long-standing leader of the anti-prohibitionist move- tion networks of naturally produced drugs, Michel Schiray was ment in the United States,who now heads the Lindesmith Center careful to distinguish between the differing situations and moti- in New York, one of the movement's most active centres in the vations of traffickers. He contrasted the motivation of drug-pro- world. ducing farmers (economic survival) with that of users,and the socio-economic integration of small dealers at the end of the line Some other works were subsequently published.Worth men- with the situation of major criminal organisations and other in- tioning is Stupéfiants,prix,profits: l'économie politique du marché termediaries, which operate for financial gain, and which alone des stupéfiants industriels, by Marie-Christine Dupuis (1996), supply the drug money laundering circuits.The author wondered which sets out to reformulate and re-exploit internationally avail- what relationships exist between the members of each network able data. Although not very innovative and based on conven- and what different kinds of policies could be applied to them.On tional data, her work does nonetheless help to lend greater aca- the basis of very advanced work by researchers in the Andean demic legitimacy to the subject. countries, Pierre Salama set out to demonstrate that a macro- economics of drugs is possible,and that it should play an impor- The whole subsequent period up to the beginning of 2000 tant role in the analysis of the effects of drugs on both industry, was above all marked by works regularly published by the OGD. foreign trade, public revenue and increased exchange rates. He On the basis of unpublished research,and in the best tradition of pointed to the differences in this respect between three coun- investigative journalism, Dimitri de Kochko and Alexandre tries,Bolivia,Colombia and Peru.In the absence so far of any sig- Datskevitch (1994) were the first to show,in L'Empire de la drogue: nificant French research into drug use,the issue also included an la Russie et ses marchés, the extraordinary way drug production article by Nicholas Kozel et al., of the National Institute on Drug and trafficking has boomed in the Republics of the former Soviet Abuse (NIDA), whose function is to assess and analyse changes Union. Among other things, they concluded that regional crimi- in demand for drugs in the United States. By describing the in- nal organisations were reinforced as a result.That same year,the vestigative apparatus that has been in operation for many years, OGD (1994) published its second annual report,Etat des drogues he suggested that a reasonable knowledge of the facts is possi- and drogue des Etats, in book form. In it, the institution opened ble and could be sufficient to sustain macro-social and economic many new files, including ones on various States it defined as research. In his investigation into the effectiveness of drug con- "narco-States (eg Myanmar, Haiti and Nigeria), "States under the trol and repression policies,Pierre Kopp first showed that an em- influence" (eg Turkey,Thailand and Mexico),"sensitive States" (eg pirical observation of the situation in various European countries Italy,Poland and the Netherlands),and crumbling or "non-States" does not seem to confirm that a greater degree of repression has (eg Afghanistan and Liberia). It also noted that at the time very a significant deterrent effect on use, and vice versa. As for theo- few States in the world could regard themselves as not being at retical analysis, it too does not always show that repression least "drug-sensitive".Those distinctions were later widely reiter- causes the price of drugs to increase,and,worse,it demonstrates ated and debated (see Christian Geffray's chapter in the present that any such increase can reinforce the more organised groups file).The OGD's third report (1995),Géopolitique des drogues,also of traffickers by boosting their profits.He repeated this argument published in book form,not only analysed general developments in his more general book, L'Economie de la drogue (Paris: La during the year, but focused on an assessment of the impact of Découverte,Repères series,1996).Finally,two opposing views on the Soviet system's collapse on drug trafficking and the pene- drug prohibition systems were briefly presented in the form of a tration of international circuits by new organisations,particularly debate. One of them, which favours prohibition, reiterated the in Europe.It is in Europe that the report revealed in particular the position that Catherine Trautmann adopted in her 1990 report to concept of "short networks", to describe the use of various dias- the prime minister in the spirit of the official French position.The poras all over the world, notably in Western Europe, by regional opposing view was put forward by Ethan Nadelmann, a promi- criminal organisations,which thus develop new,direct,rapid and

FORMER NEXT 13 Chapter 2 selective forms of intervention on markets. At the same time, in countries.Once again,it was journalists and professionals,mostly a work entitled Géopolitique et géostratégies des drogues, Alain in the judiciary and more rarely in the police, who both drew at- Labrousse and Michel Koutouzis (1995) further developed their tention to the phenomenon and provided the evidence that thoughts on the existence and definition of a specific disciplinary made it possible to get some idea of its scale.That is why I shall area that could cover the "geopolitics of drugs".This concise work first introduce some of the essays which have played a pioneer- summarised the history of the subject and the work that has ing role in making people aware of the problem over the last been done on it worldwide.It went on to propose some well-doc- decade. umented cases that could serve as a basis for that "discipline", with the emphasis on regional conflicts, geostrategies and Major criminal organisations have formed the subject of North/South economic and political relationships. It was an ut- books which in many cases were published a long time ago. terly convincing and extremely useful overview of subjects which Some countries,such as Italy(2) and the United States,have much remain very little known.The following year,the OGD (1996) pub- more abundant literature on the subject,to which we should re- lished its Atlas mondial des drogues, edited by Michel Koutouzis. fer. Books on the various mafias do not directly concern drugs. Based on some remarkable map-making by Pascal Perez, this Some of them hardly mention them.But today most mafias play book presented an overview of all the OGD team's work in an ex- a central role in narcotics trafficking. It is well known that the tremely pleasant, accessible and striking form. It constituted a profits it generates is one of the favourite sources of finance for highly didactic basic document on the subject. After that, the such organisations. In this respect, it remains useful to tie in the OGD continued to make its contribution by dealing each year study of drugs with the study of mafias and other major criminal with new issues that seemed original in the light of the way drug organisations, as has already been seen in the earlier section. markets were developing. Its final report, presented last March and entitled La Drogue, un marché de dupes, was published in In L'Europe des parrains: la mafia à l'assaut de l'Europe, 2000.It also brings to a close an undertaking that was particularly Fabrizio Calvi (1993) followed up the work he had started in his fruitful for the light it threw on the subject throughout the 90s, La Vie quotidienne de la Mafia de 1950 à nos jours (Hachette, not only in France but even more at international level.The net- 1986).His diagnosis was disturbing.The Mafia has blighted the work set up throughout the world will doubtless be integrated whole Italian social fabric, even in its highest echelons. It has into another form of organisation so that its vital task of provid- mounted an assault on many European countries, where it is ing independent information can be pursued in a field where dis- now well established. It has penetrated the heart of the simulation and media manipulation are notoriously widespread European Community's economic and political institutions, practices.This fact is also one of the main obstacles preventing from which billions of francs are siphoned off to finance or- the development of research and academic work. ganised crime.The Europe of "godfathers" preceded the opening up of the borders of the single market.The Mafia's organisational skills are not affected by such obstacles as the signing Criminal Organisations of treaties. Drug trafficking is not specifically dealt with in the and "Economic and Financial Crimes" book. But, in the countless examples described by the author on the basis of his direct investigations, drugs are involved in (2) Several authors have remarkably documented It has to be admitted that the criminologists and sociologists labour and arms trafficking, property speculation, extortion, and analysed the mafia phenomenom in Italy.As far who know so much about the law and "deviancy" apparently smuggling of all kinds,money laundering,corruption and busi- as french language publications are concerned,I re- failed to prepare us properly for the sudden proliferation of crim- ness dealings of the most official kind. When looked at from fer you to my technical note on economic theory inal organisations and of economic and financial crime in gen- that angle, drug trafficking can be seen to be just one activity and, in particular, to Pino Arlacchi's fundamental work,Mafia et compagnies,où l'éthique mafiosa et l'e- eral that has had such an impact on public opinion and re- within a range of much more complex strategies aimed at in- sprit du capitalisme (grenoble PUG, 1986). searchers over the last two decades in France, as in most other creasing the major organisations' economic and political

FORMER NEXT 14 Chapter 2 power.Those organisations are also shown to be enormously based mainly on the example of Italy. But in fact his argument complex. They cannot be compared with traditional types of was borne out by Calvi's more descriptive book on the Mafia's companies,since they are constantly changing,and it is always assault on Europe and other subsequent works. difficult to identify decision-making centres, hierarchical relationships, rivalries and alliances within them.The author pro- Several books have increased our knowledge of various ma- vides such an abundance and diversity of details arising from jor criminal organisations in a number of regions,and more par- his thorough investigations that it is not easy for the researcher ticularly the Italian mafias, the Japanese Yakuzas, the Chinese to tackle the task of theorising and clarifying the organisation Triads, the new mafias in Russia and former Soviet countries, and strategies of major criminal organisations. A lengthy bibli- and the mafias in the Balkans among others. One of the more ography of books on mafias, most of them Italian, is provided. recent such books is Les Seigneurs du crime, by Jean Ziegler It includes a long list of works by the Parliamentary Commission (1998).The author is one of the few sociologists to have raised on the Mafia. and regularly monitored such issues; and he has done so since the 70s. He is interested not only in traditional organisations, With Les Mafias contre la democratie, Admiral Pierre Lacoste but more particularly in the "new mafias", those that have (1992) set the alarm bells ringing. Given his background — he sprung up since the 1980s, following the collapse of commu- was head of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), nism, the worldwide spread of neo-liberalism and financial France's foreign intelligence agency — his warning should be globalisation, and those which are also centred on individual heeded. States but extend beyond national borders and sometimes,but not always, rely on the support of older mafias. On the basis of Reassured by their "victorious battle against totalitari- considerable documentary research and interviews with gov- anisms", democracies have now discovered a new threat to ernment officials in many countries, Ziegler first paints a gen- their security — the existence of an underground world of eral picture of the situation by going back over, and digging crime, violence and drugs. "The mafia syndrome" is right at the deeper into, certain major scandals that illustrate the subject top of the scale of risks that face our societies.Whole regions on well,some of them already well known,such as that of the BCCI. the world map, so-called "dark areas", remain uncontrolled by He concludes by emphasising the importance of the fight security forces.The same is happening in city suburbs and in- against money laundering and corruption, which are the two ner city areas. Although we have already achieved an "extraor- main practices that enable major criminal organisations to ex- dinary control of complexity", these fresh challenges are be- pand. coming even more complex than in the past.The author applies all his experience of strategic studies in the field of foreign de- The laundering of money from drugs and from other criminal fence to this new internal enemy with outside ramifications.The activities is touched upon in most earlier books on drug traffick- warning he issues at the beginning of the book undoubtedly ing and organised crime. Some of them, however, make a point makes it worth going on this assault course,organised by a war- of looking more specifically into the phenomenon. All the work fare specialist who takes us from defence to security. But to of the 1990s had an international point of reference, stemming achieve that,Admiral Lacoste warns us that information and in- from the G7's decision in 1989 to set up the Financial Action Task telligence have to play a key role. He rightly argues that, even Force (FATF), which resulted in the publication of a work on the when placed in the service of democracy, they nevertheless subject the following year(3).This undoubtedly made it possible raise moral and ethical problems that should be taken seriously. to open up a new, specific and particularly impenetrable area of When the book came out, some people naturally wondered study. It was on those foundations that Pierre Kopp (1995), in (3) FTAF, La lutte contre le blanchiment de capitaux, whether Lacoste had not tended slightly to overestimate the L'Economie du blanchiment,edited a first collection of French and Paris, Documentation française, 1990. importance of this generalised "mafia syndrome", which he foreign texts,many of them derived from "grey" literature — but

FORMER NEXT 15 Chapter 2 which had the advantage of existing — and from specialised in- book with an equally large number of interviews with people stitutions. He also presented the first economic analysis of the from various specialised circles.Anyone reading the book will be phenomenon, in addition to an analysis of the machinery both left in no doubt that corrupt practices are one of the basic mech- of money laundering,most of which was familiar to the FATF,and anisms of the economic and,to a large extent,political construc- of the international institutional framework set up at the begin- tion of Europe.Links with international tax havens have not pre- ning of the 1990s to fight the phenomenon. In that way, he use- vented such havens from expanding at the very heart of Europe fully helped to open up the topic for research.The following year itself.A considerable task awaits any researcher who might want Jean-Louis Hérail and Patrick Ramael (1996),in Blanchiment d'ar- to try to throw light on this now essential aspect of economics, gent et crime organisé:la dimension juridique,explored definitions, the political economy and politics.But the problem of gaining ac- legislation and legal methods of carrying out the fight by look- cess to information did not prevent a French pioneer of scholarly ing into some of the rare cases available for study in France.They economic study of the subject from tackling it, or from con- also attempted to evaluate existing legal and operational mea- structing and elaborating a theoretical framework and some sures and to suggest certain essential changes that could enable fruitful analyses from the beginning of the 1990s on.Jean Cartier- the phenomenon to be controlled and fought more effectively. Bresson (1997), in Pratiques et contrôle de la corruption, which he It needs to be firmly stressed that,in relation to the far from neg- edited, and to which he got 12 other French and European au- ligible resources made available throughout the 1990s as regards thors to contribute, tried to draw up an initial assessment of our structures,the law,techniques and investigative methods,results state of knowledge. The authors dealt both with Western were disappointing.They reflected the considerable difficulty ex- European contexts and with developing countries they called perienced in carrying out such action at both national and inter- "tardy capitalists".Several chapters analysed for the first time the national levels.The phenomenon called into question some of preventive and repressive measures that have been introduced, the fundamental elements of the workings of our economies and especially in France, with illustrations from the few cases avail- our societies, which it is of course difficult to change. But it also able to researchers.The work also describes action initiated at made it virtually impossible to organise significant research on European level, by the Council of Europe, and at international an experimental and documented basis,even though several re- level,by the OECD.Lastly,it emphasises the scale of corruption in searchers were interested in doing so.Work that depended heav- the international financial system, which encourages and feeds ily on access to available information — in this case,mainly cases on all such money movements(4). already heard by the courts — was accordingly delayed. 1996 could well prove to have been a turning point in the ap- The same obstacle — the lack of available direct information proach to and action against economic and financial crime. about concrete developments — has also considerably slowed Greater efforts were made to mobilise public opinion on the is- down research into corruption. That makes the investigative sue."The Geneva Appeal", modest in form, but with a serious and work of journalists Fabrizio Calvi and Leo Sisti (1995), in Les powerful message to put across, became the watchword of the Nouveaux réseaux de la corruption: l'Europe de la combine et des movement.The journalist and novelist,Denis Robert (1996),acted pots-de-vins, all the more remarkable and useful.They first de- as its spokesman.In the book he edited,La Justice ou le chaos,he scribe the extraordinary achievements of the handful of investi- reported the words of the magistrates who had signed the gating magistrates who committed themselves to the fight Appeal — magistrates from Geneva, Milan, Brussels, Madrid and against corruption,that exemplary battle of the last two decades Rennes who decided to say "no" publicly to the way magistrates (4) Jean Cartier-Bresson also edited, De l'ancienne à of the 20th century, chiefly in Italy, but also in Switzerland, Spain, are hamstrung by completely outdated procedures and laws in la nouvelle corruption dans les pays en développe- Belgium,France and even,it would seem,Luxembourg.The doc- their attempts to deal with corruption which,from companies to ment,a special issue of Mondes en developpement,vol. 26,n° 102,1998.The issue also contained articles on umentation they gleaned from judicial sources and official the highest echelons of State,has been growing faster and faster Africa, Latin America, Russia and China. European institutions is truly impressive. They round off their as a result of economic and financial globalisation.But they also

FORMER NEXT 16 Chapter 2 denounced — which is perhaps more serious — the pressure debate, alongside the police and other "controllers" of society.It they undergo from "politicians" in the exercise of their profession is they who keep us informed about society's reluctance to open and enforcement of the law.Even when they have the necessary its eyes to all these phenomena.They,too,will largely be respon- material resources and can rely on inter-institutional and inter- sible for the development of research on the subject. national cooperation — which is far from always the case — their investigations inevitably grind to a halt at the gates of the many A few words, finally, on Les Prospérités du crime: trafic de tax havens that now also exist in Europe. At that point, no one drogues,blanchiment et crises financières dans l'après-guerre froide, helps them. 1996 also saw the publication of a work that origi- by my colleague Guilhem Fabre (1999).I have kept a close eye on nated in the police administration: Marcel Leclerc (1996), then his career, which is rather typical of the direction that research head of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Sécurité Intérieure — has tended to take over the past few years when approaching IHESI (Institute of Higher Education in Internal Security), which such issues. Initially interested in the drug trafficking which depends on the Interior Ministry,edited La Criminalité organisée. started to increase sharply in China at the beginning of the 90s, The book set out to make a French contribution to questions he soon succeeded in penetrating the networks through which posed at European level by the European Union's "Drugs and or- money of criminal origin is laundered in Southeast Asia.In order ganised crime" group (notably in its 1995 report) and at interna- better to understand those networks, he concentrated his re- tional level by the World Conference on Crime organised in search on two important countries in the region, Japan and Naples in 1994. The book contains 17 contributions by French Thailand,at the time of the Asian crisis.He was able to assess and and non-French specialists who attempt to throw light on the analyse not only the interpenetration of criminal activities question of how to define organised crime (which remains a very among themselves and with the official economy, but the im- vague term) and on the various forms it can take,from mafia-like portant role played by dirty money in the crises that recently hit organisations to new "white-collar" organisations and many those two countries. In order to provide an element of compari- other forms of crime.They also discuss the importance of such son, Fabre also includes an analysis of the Mexican crisis which organisations in financial flows, and conclud by focusing on the took place at the same period.This successive comparison of the most appropriate way of curbing them, by looking more partic- phenomena that are pieced together by the book is to my mind ularly at the experience of Italy,of the FBI in the United States,of one of its strong points. Finally, it is to be noted that in the pre- Interpol and of the newly fledged Europol. Un Monde sans loi,a sent issue Fabre further explores the subject, focusing this time book by the magistrate Jean de Maillard (1998), is a wonderful on China alone and the various kinds of economic crime that example of how to popularise the topic:half the book consists of have now swept the country, and concentrating especially on illustrations (colour maps, photographs, graphs and diagrams) corruption and smuggling alongside the other criminal activities and the other half of text. It reiterates the terms of the Geneva that take place there both within and outside the State appara- Appeal and sets out to provide an overview of the facts and fig- tus. ures on which it is based.It also clearly and succinctly summarises the policies that need to be implemented if the law is to be put back in the service of democracy.Notre affaire à tous, by Eva Joly (2000),is of capital importance as a further piece of evidence.Of course it is mainly aimed at the general public (as can be seen from its title). Of course it also lays much emphasis on her own personal itinerary, which is indeed exceptional in that she was born in another country. But this only serves to strengthen the evidence of a category of people and professionals — judges and magistrates — who now find themselves at the heart of the

FORMER NEXT 17 Chapter 2 JAUBERT,A.— D comme drogue.— Paris: Editions Albin Moreau, Bibliography 1973, 280 pp.

BAYART,J.-F.,ELLIS, S., and HIBOU,B.— La Criminalisation de l'Etat JOLY,E.— Notre affaire à tous. — Paris:Editions les Arènes,2000,251 pp. en Afrique. — Brussels: Editions Complexe, 1997, 168 pp. KOCHKO, D.de, and DATSKEVITCH,A.— L'Empire de la drogue: BROUET,O.— Drogues et relations internationales. — la Russie et ses marchés. -- Paris:Hachette (Pluriel series),1994,225 pp. Brussels: Editions Complexe, 1991, 288pp. KOPP, P.(ed.).— L'Economie du blanchiment. — Paris: Association CABALLERO,F.— Le Droit de la drogue. — Paris: Dalloz, 2000 d'Economie Financière-Monchrétien (Finance et Société series), (2nd ed.), 816 pp. 1995, 259 pp. KOPP, P.,and SCHIRAY,M.— "Géopolitique et économie politique CALVI,F.— L'Europe des parrains: la mafia à l'assaut de l'Europe.— de la drogue." — Futuribles: Analyse, Prévision, Prospective, Paris: Grasset, 1993, 315 pp. N° 185, March 1994, pp 3-105. CALVI, F.,and SISTI, L.(1995).— Les Nouveaux réseaux de la corruption: l'Europe de la combine et des pots-de-vins.— LABROUSSE, A., and DELPIROU,A.— Coca Coke. — Paris: Albin Michel, 1995, 387pp. Paris: La Découverte, 1986, 280 pp. LABROUSSE,A.— La Drogue,l'argent et les armes.— CARTIER-BRESSON, J.(ed.).— Pratiques et contrôle de la corruption. Paris: Fayard, 1991, 485 pp. — Paris: Association d'Economie Financière-Monchrétien LABROUSSE,A.,and WALLON,A.(ed.).— La Planète des drogues. — (Finance et Société series), 1997, 329 pp. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1993, 234 pp. LABROUSSE, A., and KOUTOUZIS,M.— Géopolitique CHOISEUL PRASLIN,C.-H.de.— La Drogue,une économie dynamisée et géostratégies des drogues.— Paris: Economica, 1996, 110 pp. par la répression. — Paris: Presses du CNRS, 1991, 244 pp. LACOSTE, P.(Admiral).— Les Mafias contre la démocratie.— COUVRAT, J.-F.,and PLESS,N.— La Face cachée de l'économie Paris: JC Lattès, 1992, 215 pp. mondiale.— Paris: Editions Hatier, 1989, 210 pp. LAMOUR, C., and GUTELMAN (alias "Lamberti"), M.— DELBREL, G.(ed.).— Géopolitique de la drogue. — Paris: Campagne Les Grandes manoeuvres de l'opium. — Paris: Editions du Seuil, Européenne d'Information sur la Drogue,La Découverte, 1991,288 pp. 1972, 215 pp.

DUPUIS, M.-C.— Stupéfiants,prix,profits: l'économie politique LECLERC, M.l (ed.).— La Criminalité organisée. — du marché des stupéfiants industriels.— Paris: PUF Paris: IHESI-La Documentation Française, 1996, 279 pp. (Criminalité internationale series), 1996, 234 pp. MAILLARD, J.de (ed.).— Un Monde sans loi: la criminalité FABRE,G.— Les Prospérités du crime: trafic de drogues,blanchiment financière en images. —Paris: Stock, 1998, 141 pp. et crises financières dans l'après-guerre froide. — La Tour d'Aigues: UNESCO/Editions de l'Aube, 1999, 215 pp. OBSERVATOIRE GEOPOLITIQUE DES DROGUES.— La Drogue,nouveau désordre mondial.— Paris: Hachette HERAIL, J.-L., and Ramael, Patrick.— Blanchiment d'argent et crime (Pluriel series), 1993, 321 pp. organisé: la dimension juridique. — Paris: PUF (Criminalité internationale series), 1996, 196 pp.

FORMER NEXT 18 Chapter 2 - Bibliography OBSERVATOIRE GEOPOLITIQUE DES DROGUES. — Etat des drogues and drogue des Etats.— Paris:Hachette (Pluriel-Intervention series), 1994, 322 pp. OBSERVATOIRE GEOPOLITIQUE DES DROGUES.— Géopolitique des drogues.— Paris: La Découverte, 1995, 271 pp. OBSERVATOIRE GEOPOLITIQUE DES DROGUES (ed.Koutouzis,M., and Perez, Pascal).— Atlas mondial des drogues. — Paris: PUF, 1996, 215 pp.

ROBERT, D.(ed.).— La Justice ou le chaos. — Paris: Stock, 1996, 349 pp.

SALAMA, P.,and SCHIRAY, M.(ed.).— "Drogues et Développement." — PUF, Revue Tiers-Monde, vol.XIII, N° 131, July-September, 1992, pp 481-691.

SAULOY, M., and LE BONNIEC,Y.— A qui profite la cocaïne? — Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1992, 408 pp.

SCHIRAY, M.(ed.).— Les Marchés interdits de la drogue. — Paris: Association Descartes "Penser la drogue,penser les drogues", vol.2, 1992, 239 pp.

SORMAN,G.— En attendant les barbares. — Paris: Fayard, 1992, 374 pp.

ZIEGLER,J.— Les Seigneurs du crime. — Paris: Seuil, 1998, 282 pp.

FORMER

19 Chapter 2 - Bibliography Chapter 3 showing that this assumption/hope is overly optimistic, it is THE RELATIONSHIP probable that he would have written even more if he had stud- BETWEEN RESEARCH ied drug policy. AND DRUG POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES According to many studies and to American researchers interviewed during the field study, it would seem that public Laurent Laniel policy on drugs has been largely immune from the influence of research. Instead, conventional wisdom appears to have been a major shaping force(4). Judging from what a large number of American social scientists say about it,the paradoxical impact of conventional wisdom seems to be a structural feature of US drug control policy.To a large extent, this chapter reflects the — so far largely fruitless — efforts of American social scientists to counter-arrest the influence of conventional wisdom on policy.

Because of the impact on policy of conventional wisdom (1) Galbraith,J.:The Affluent Society,40th Anniversary and ideology,and sometimes of political convenience and racial Edition, Mariner Books, Boston and New York, 1998 "In the interpretation of all social life, there is a persistent and or ethnic prejudice, leading American researchers have long (1958), p.6. never-ending competition between what is right and what is viewed drug policies and what drives them as an important, (2) Report after a one-month field study in the United States,April/May,1999.Paris,July 1999.I wish to express merely acceptable. In this competition, while a strategic advantage even crucial, part of their country’s "drug problem".Thus, books my gratitude to the taxpayers and the federal govern- lies with what exists, all tactical advantage is with the acceptable. and articles about drug policy are far more numerous in the ment of the United States, in particular Ambassador Audiences of all kinds most applaud what they like best.(1)" United States than are studies of the actual workings of the ille- Felix Rohatyn and the United States Information gal drug trade. This is reflected in the bibliography provided Agency (USIA) — Caroline Gorse-Combalat,Maureen Cormack and Michèle Plawner of the US Embassy in John K. Galbraith with this chapter, in which "Drug Control Policy and Criminal Paris,and Carol Grabauskas of USIA in Washington — Justice Issues" is the largest section,while much of the literature for inviting me to take part in the International Visitor listed in the other sections also discusses policy explicitly or Program. My gratitude also goes to Meridian implicitly, and/or hopes to have an impact on it. International Center in Washington, DC, especially Introduction Melissa Phillips and Kandel Coorman for the excellent organisation and management of my program, and Research, Policy Regardless of the often ideologically-charged debate taking their hard work beyond the call of duty.Thanks should and Conventional Wisdom(2) place in the United States itself, the field study has made it clear also be extended to Ahmed Scego,my escort officer. Readers may find it paradoxical to see a quote from that, for a range of factors and in a variety of ways, U.S. drug pol- All the people whom I met during the trip deserve special thanks,but they are too numerous to be men- Galbraith’s famous chapter on "The Concept of Conventional icy and politics are a very strong, perhaps the strongest, deter- tioned by name.Their patience, kindness and open- Wisdom" at the beginning of a chapter on drug trafficking and minant of what kind of research is done in America. An impor- ness with comments and literature made tangible the policy research in the United States. Indeed, conventional wis- tant reason for this is that US drug policy — or at least some diversity of the United States and testified to its dom,or "the structure of ideas that is based on acceptability"(3),has aspects thereof — has been widely perceived by numerous democratic culture. I hope I have not wasted their time; they can be assured that they have not wasted little to do with research, which is supposed to produce scien- researchers to be seriously flawed for a long time. mine. Last, but not least, I am grateful to the MOST tifically valid facts that are more than just "acceptable". In turn, Programme of UNESCO, particularly the project these are widely recognised as "knowledge" or "truth", and But, of course, the main reason for the centrality of policy in "Economic and Social Transformations connected most people will assume, or at least hope, that scientific knowl- research on drug trafficking anywhere in the world is that policy with the International Drug Problem", implemented in collaboration with UNDCP. edge inspires public policy. But if Galbraith, a sharp critical is based on prohibition and the more or less aggressive enforce- (3) Ibid., p.15. observer of US economic policy, has written several books ment thereof (which varies across time and space) that make

NEXT 20 Chapter 3 (4) Conventional wisdom about drugs is extremely pervasive;it may even contaminate scholarly work.For drugs illegal, and transform the drug trade into "trafficking" or taken that this is easily accessible to anyone. For instance, an instance,Paul Johnson’s highly regarded A History of "smuggling".The formal illegality of the drug trade established by enormous amount of US government literature is available on the American People (HarperPerennial,New York,1999), policy creates an environment characterised by secrecy and dan- the internet. Money is also a crucial element explaining why so a major historical study of more than 1000 pages, mentions "drugs" only once while discussing social ger, and it is the most important factor determining the forms in much research has focused on policy.Indeed,on average the fed- mobility in the United States: "And all the time pop which drugs are produced, transported, sold and consumed. It is eral government has spent well above $10 billion a year on drug music was crowding in to envelop the various styles also an extremely significant factor in drug price formation and control for at least the last ten years.There are presently 52 feder- and traditions in the phantasmagoria of commercial support(5). Danger and secrecy also present significant method- al agencies with a stake in drug control, and each must justify music geared to the taste of countless millions of easily manipulated but increasingly affluent young peo- ological difficulties for would-be students of drug trafficking, and their budget.The sharing out of the national "drug control cake", ple.And,from the world of jazz and pop,the drug habit this may explain why most research has been focused on policy. that is the annual allocation of funds by Congress, generates a spread to the masses as the most accelerated form of bureaucratic and public debate where arguments are used to downward mobility of all" (my emphasis). Although it The American Leadership support requests for funds. The arguments thus put forth by the cannot be denied that pop and jazz have provided, and continue to provide the musical environment for For more than 100 years, "narcotics", as Americans often large American drug control bureaucracy in order to obtain fund- much drug taking in America (and elsewhere), and refer to banned substances whether or not they induce sleep or ing, and therefore reproduce itself, this bureaucratic mechanics they may induce drug use by some young stupor,have been a policy concern and have attracted the inter- itself, and its impact on both the nature of policy and its imple- Americans,Johnson’s statement is,to say the least,re- est of scholars. As a result, the United States today is probably mentation have given rise to much research. This is in keeping ductive.In a broad and morally-loaded generalisation of the links between drugs and modern musi- the largest producer of social science research on illegal drugs with a tradition that dates back to the very origins of the United cal forms associated with youth and Black in the world.This leadership can be explained by "physical" fac- States.The need to keep away from oppressive (European) forms Americans (both of which are widely perceived as tors: the United States is one of the richest and largest countries of government was the main concern inspiring the fathers of the "dangerous" groups by the rest of society,according in the world, it has many universities, and many independent Constitution of the United States, which seeks to guarantee indi- to American sociologists), Johnson, a British historian, reproduces the conventional wisdom that all and government research centres and foundations. Moreover, vidual Liberty by establishing checks and balances and the sepa- drug use is habit-forming and inevitably leads down because drugs are a major domestic and foreign policy concern, ration of government powers. In addition, the writings of John the social scale, despite considerable scientific evi- and a subject of ideological and political debates, funding has Stuart Mill are a strong influence on American thinking. Mill was dence to the contrary. Neither does Johnson seem been comparatively more forthcoming than in other countries, very wary of bureaucracy, which he thought tended to transform to be familiar with the abundant literature on drugs in America produced by British and American histo- even if many of the social scientists encountered during the its activities — service to the people — into an end unto itself rians (see Bibliography). field study said that money was not that easy to find. (self-reproduction)(6).As a result,suspicion of government activity, (5) On this,see among many others:Brecher,E.(ed.): and of bureaucracy in general, is widespread in the American Licit and Illicit Drugs, Little & Brown, Boston, 1972, Other factors, which explain both the abundance of research research community and in society at large, and so is the per- pp.90-100; Wisotsky, S.: Beyond the War on Drugs: Overcoming of a Failed Public Policy, Prometheus and its overwhelming focus on policy, derive from the character- ceived need to keep them under control. It can be argued that Books, Buffalo, 1990, pp. 32-36; and Kleiman, M.: istics of American democracy. Indeed, although national security research into drug policy,often through the guise of searching for Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results, Basic Books, and raison d'état have ensured that American drug control is not rationality, provides perhaps the best current illustration of such New York,1992, pp.104-126. totally devoid of "dark areas",policy is more amenable to research suspicion. (6) Mill also opposed the use of law to keep individuals from doing harm to themselves, and it is proba- because it is public and generates a lot of official literature on ble that he would oppose present-day US drug pol- which studies can be based. Public scrutiny and the public’s right The U.S. and the MOST-Drugs Network icy.Marc Moore quotes the following passage from of access to official documents is taken much more seriously in The drug "research/policy nexus", meaning the links Mill’s On Liberty (1859): "The only purpose for which the United States than perhaps in any other country. Public between research,policy and politics in the United States is also power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community,against his will,is to prevent accountability is a central feature of American democracy and cit- an important issue as far as the MOST-Drugs Program of harm to others. His own good, either physical or izens,meaning the taxpayers who bankroll the government,have UNESCO (hereinafter referred to as "MOST") is concerned. moral,is not a sufficient warrant.",in Moore,M.:"Drugs, a right to know what is done with their money. The Freedom of Indeed, one of the specific objectives of MOST is to "make com- the Criminal Law and the Administration of Justice”,in Information Act (FOIA) provides a safeguard against excessive parative analysis (…) between the countries (studied within the Bayer, R.& Oppenheimer, G.: Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society, Cambridge University government secrecy. Thus, the government produces a lot of lit- MOST framework) and those geographical areas that already have Press,Cambridge and New York,1993,p.226. erature in order to explain and justify what it does, and care is experience in this issue, principally the United States and Andean

FORMER NEXT 21 Chapter 3 countries"(7). Additionally, the "essential idea" behind MOST’s set- provides the backbone of this chapter. Indeed, following French ting up of an international network of researchers is that sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, it is thought that history is, or at "increased use of social science knowledge leads to improved least should be, central to a study of a phenomenon such as social policy formulation"(8). drugs.

Two conclusions that can be drawn from the above provide What are thought to be the central issues of American the rationale for this chapter. Firstly, the research produced by domestic drug problems are reviewed at some length in Chapter MOST is destined to be compared with research done in the 1. Because the research literature on domestic problems far out- United States, because the latter is viewed as “experienced” in numbers that on foreign issues, this chapter has placed more the field of drug trafficking research. This chapter provides a emphasis on it. Finally, foreign policy problems reflect to a very brief overview of what makes up the US experience, its origins large extent the structure of the internal debate. Hence and subsequent development.It hopes thereby to contribute to American research on foreign issues is briefly summarised in the the comparative analysis of MOST’s output based on new, first section of Chapter 2, while the second section is dedicated updated, written material. Indeed, at present no specific litera- to a brief review of two important forthcoming American books ture exists on which such a comparison could be based, at least that contain contributions by a member of MOST. as far as this writer is aware. Secondly, MOST’s central objective is to improve social policy through the provision of original To summarise, this chapter hopes to provide the MOST net- research material. This implies that what social policy there is work with an overview of the social science research on drugs has been unsatisfactory until now and that research is needed carried out in the United States as it was perceived by a French to improve it. Therefore, it would seem important to examine observer during a one-month field study(9). Obviously, one the multi-faceted and rather controversial relationship between month is too short a time to fully grasp all that is done in such a social science research and policy-making about drugs in the vast, diverse and active country. Even in a year, it would be United States, all the more so because the U.S. is of special con- impossible to identify, obtain, read and comment all the books cern for MOST. Equally importantly, the United States is current- and articles that American researchers have written about ly the world’s only (and most powerful) "antidrug superpower", drugs. Therefore, choices had to be made, the spotlight was and what it does or does not do, both at home and abroad, has thrown on some areas while others were left in the dark, and significant repercussions on the global drug trafficking and generally it has not been possible to go into very much detail. drug policy-making scenes. It is no exaggeration to say that as Although this is bound to disappoint some readers, it is hoped far as the modern drug phenomenon is concerned, the United that most readers will find the resulting overview useful. States is where it all started in the late 19th century and early 20th (7) See Carlos Sanchez Milani’s introduction to the century. Indeed, the present legislation of the majority of coun- Proceedings of the II Annual Conference,Rio de Janeiro, 19-22 October 1998, of the UNESCO/MOST/UNDCP tries is modelled on, or in agreement with, international legisla- Domestic Problems Project on Economic and Social Transformations con- tion, which is itself inspired to a large extent on the American nected with the International Drug Problem,mimeo, drug control model. Historical research on the origins of American drug control Paris,1999,p.1. has shown that many of the current preoccupations of social (8) UNDCP: Management of Social Transformations: th Building in a Drug Component,AD/GLO/98/D17,p.2. The huge concern generated by drugs in American society science with drug policy have their roots in the 19 and early (9)This paper is about social science research only;it since the 1980s, together with the scale, punitiveness and 20th centuries when the industrial revolution hit the United does not cover the huge American literature from impact of drug control policies in the same period, have led States, deeply transforming its economy and society. A shift in other fields such as pharmacology, chemistry, epi- many American scholars to look back to the origins of drug con- population distribution patterns, the simultaneous growth of demiology,etc.Therefore,in this paper the word "research" means "social science research on drug traf- trol in order to understand the historical roots of current issues. large urban middle and working classes fuelled by a new wave ficking and drug policy". This "re-examination" of history in the light of present events of immigration, the emergence of new working conditions and

FORMER NEXT 22 Chapter 3 the progress of chemistry and pharmacology gave rise to new cocaine; heroin-based cough syrups, etc.), together with the problems, new concerns, new scientific concepts designed to outrage — and efficient lobbying — of crusading moral and address them, new conventional wisdom, and new policies. religious leaders at their widespread use and abuse, led to the However, it must be stressed that the bulk of research attention adoption of national legislation. The first federal law was the up until the 1960s and 1970s was focused on drug use and its 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act,which required that psychoactive consequences, not drug trafficking. This remains largely true ingredients be listed on the labels of goods traded in interstate today, for even if research on trafficking issues has taken off in commerce; the second and better-known major statute was the the 1970s,the vast majority of the social science literature treats Harrison Act of 1914, a federal law which taxed the trade in opi- issues relating to drug use and drug policy and its enforcement. ates and established that these drugs should be supplied to users only if prescribed by medical practitioners. The Treasury This chapter presents a broad overview of the central drug Department was in charge of enforcing the narcotic tax law. By policy and research issues in the United States. It examines 1920, it had set up a special office to do so: the Narcotics some of the historical roots of American drug control policy and Division of the Prohibition Unit.This is the birth of the American some concepts that are viewed as central in the current policy drug enforcement federal bureaucracy, the subsequent expan- and research debates on drugs.The first section looks at the ori- sion of which has been subject to fascinating historical gins and present state of the prohibition/legalisation debate. research(12). In July 1930, the Narcotics Division became the The second section assesses the "Drugs and Crime" nexus, pos- Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), which until 1962 was headed sibly the largest single source of research, and controversy, in by a commissioner, the well-known Harry J. Anslinger, who thus the present US debate about drugs. Indeed, both drug prohibi- became one of the longest-serving senior government officials (10) See Levine, H.: The Discovery of Addiction: Changing Conceptions of Habitual Drunkenness in tion and the links that American policy makers and general in American history. Anslinger later played a key role in making America,inJournal of Studies on Alcohol,Vol.38, N° 1, public have long perceived as existing between drugs and law enforcement the preferred means of treating the drug January 1978.On opiates use in the 19th century, see crime, provide the basis of present drug control policies in the problem both at home and abroad (see below). Courtwright, D.: Dark Paradise: Opiate Addiction in United States and in much of the rest of the world. America Before 1940, Harvard University Press, th Cambridge,1982,pp.35-42. Back in the 19 century, a conventional wisdom formed (11) Levine, op.cit., pp.151-161.See also, e.g.Blocker, When it all started around the effects that drugs have on minority groups. Nativist J.:American Temperance Movements,Twayne,Boston, According to sociologist Harry Levine,the concept of "addic- and racist fears of drug use among Chinese (opium) and Mexican 1989;and Gusfield,J.:Symbolic Crusade:Status Politics tion" itself,and its definition by medical and moral authorities as (marijuana) immigrants and African-Americans (cocaine)(13) initial- and the American Temperance Movement,University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1963; Becker, H.: Outsiders, Édi- a disease or disease-like condition, was initially developed for ly led western and southern counties and cities to adopt punitive tions Métailié, Paris 1985 (The Free Press of Glencoe, "habitual drunkenness" in the late 18th century (and did not laws selectively aimed at minorities,while federal legislators soon New York,1963),Chapter 8 on moral entrepreneurs. exist before that date), and then expanded to cover what are passed laws limiting the importation of smoking opium into the (12) See e.g. McWilliams, J.: The Protectors: Harry J. now called "illegal drugs", largely due to the problematic use of United States (1883), banning Chinese immigrants from import- Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930- 1962, University of Delaware Press, Newark, 1990; opiates (mostly morphine) among veterans of the American ing the drug (1887) and restricting its domestic manufacture to McWilliams, J.: Through the Past Darkly:The Politics Civil War (1861-1865) and middle to upper class (white) American citizens (1890).Restrictions on the trade in opium led to and Policies of America’s Drug War,inJournal of Policy women(10). Levine’s and other socio-historical research suggest an underground market fuelled by smugglers. With the subse- History, Vol. 3, N° 4, 1991; Kinder, D. & Walker, W.: that addiction is in fact a moral and social construct, whose cre- quent bans on cocaine and heroin in the 1920s, and marijuana in Stable Force in a Storm: Harry J.Anslinger and United th States Narcotic Policy, 1930-1962,in Journal of ation owes much to the Temperance movement of the 19 cen- the late 1930s, drug smuggling increased. But, until the 1960s, American History,Vol. 72, N° 4, March 1986. tury(11). Medical and moral concern with "addiction" among drug trafficking did not attract scientific attention and it does not (13) See Kinder,D.:Shutting Out the Evil:Nativism and white Americans led to legislative efforts aimed at controlling seem that it was viewed as a major social and political problem.A Narcotics Control in the United States,inJournal of the domestic trade and use of drugs starting in the late 19th much more powerful and enduring form of organised crime Policy History, Vol. 3, N° 4, 1991; and Musto, D.: The American Disease,Oxford University Press,New York, century. Medical concern with the widespread availability of emerged out the (alcohol) Prohibition era of the 1920s and early 1987, especially pp.5-6. psychoactive consumer goods (wines and sodas laced with 1930s (see below).

FORMER NEXT 23 Chapter 3 "Habitués", as white addicts were called, were viewed as the world) population have viewed drugs mostly as a dangerous unfortunate victims of "greedy corporations and corrupt politi- individual and social threat.The same logic led to the adoption cians" and of their own gullibility, but real and imagined drug of the 18th Amendment to the American Constitution that (14) Bertram et al.: Drug War politics, The Price of Denial, University of California Press, Berkeley and use by minority groups was associated with crime and sexual established the prohibition of alcohol in 1909. Let us recall that Los Angeles, 1996, pp.61-65, quote from p.63. promiscuity, and was generally perceived as a factor that made the prohibition of alcohol fostered the development of large (15) Ibid, p.65. minority members forget their (inferior) place in society(14).So criminal organisations that set up industrial-scale smuggling th st (16)The 18 Amendment was abrogated by the 21 while a medical approach was adopted to care for the former, infrastructure in and around the United States, which was then Amendment on December 5, 1933. On the usefulness of the bootlegging infrastructure for drug traf- drug use by the latter was mostly dealt with by police and used by drug traffickers when Prohibition was repealed in late fickers, see OGD: Atlas mondial des Drogues, Presses courts. The differentiated treatment of users according to their 1933(16). But the point here is that prohibition as a basis of drug Universitaires de France, Paris 1996, p.60. racial and ethnic background was a source of concern in the 19th control policies has been subject to debate in the United States (17) Writing in the 1960s,Thomas Schelling framed century. Bertram et al. report the following statement by an and has given rise to an abundant scholarly literature. the legalisation debate in the following way: "the question is whether the goal of somewhat reducing the appellate court in Oregon that was assessing the constitution- consumption of narcotics (…) or anything else that is ality of a state ban on opium smoking by Chinese immigrants: Two broad streams can be identified in this respect. Firstly, forced by law into the black market, is or is not out- "Smoking opium is not our vice, and therefore, it may be that this there are those who reject prohibition itself and advocate for weighed by the costs to society of creating a criminal legislation proceeds more from a desire to vex and annoy the legalisation and/or "harm reduction" policies along the lines of industry", in Schelling, T.: Economic Analysis of Organized Crime, in US President’s Commission on "Heathen Chinese" in this respect than to protect the people from those in force in the Netherlands.The majority of these authors Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice: the habit."(15) stress the failure of current policy to reduce drug abuse and Task Force Report: Organized Crime, Government insist on the negative consequences of prohibition, arguing Printing Office,Washington, 1967. Several of the issues identified above, as transformed by that it creates a "harm-maximising" environment for drug use (18) See Bibliography, section on "The Drug Policy th Debate". subsequent developments during the 20 century, have been while leading to the development of a violent underground (19) Szasz,T.: Ceremonial Chemistry:The ritual perse- the focus of social science research in the present-day United economy. They conclude that current drug policies have more cution of drugs, addicts, and pushers, Anchor Press, States. Some scholarly attention has been focused on prohibi- drawbacks than benefits and should be repealed(17). Other Garden City,1974;Our Right to Drugs:The case for a free tion as the defining principle of drug control policy, while the "legalisationists" make a more ideological, libertarian, case by market,Praeger,New York,1992;Nadelmann,E.:Drug Prohibition in the United States: Costs, Consequences relationship between drugs, crime and minorities has given rise arguing that in a free society, people should be free to choose and Alternatives, in Science, September 1, 1989; and to a wide range of research. whether they want to take drugs or not. It is not possible to list Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to Drug all the numerous literature in this category(18), but probably the Prohibition,inDaedalus,Vol.121,N° 3,1992. The Prohibition/Legalisation Debate better-known authors and those who have developed the most (20) MOST network members may be interested to know that the New York library of the Lindesmith Addiction as a consequence of drug use has given rise to the influential arguments are Thomas Szasz (libertarian) and Ethan Center (a branch of the Open Society Institute of bil- prohibitionist policies that were gradually established in the Nadelmann (negative consequences)(19).The latter is the director lionaire George Soros) is extremely well-furnished in first thirty years of the 20th century for opiates, cocaine and of The Lindesmith Center, a research and dissemination centre books and articles on various aspects of drug traf- cannabis products. To be more exact, it would seem that laws on "drug policy reform" based in New York and San Francisco ficking and drug policy in the United States and be- (20) yond.Those interested in following the legalisation and policies aimed at the suppression of drugs resulted from with a representation in the Netherlands . According to the debate in the United States from a "legalisationist’s" both the concept of addiction and the conventional wisdom field trip, independent researchers who support prohibition viewpoint can check the Lindesmith Center internet that drug use leads inevitably to addiction and addiction to explicitly seem to be much less numerous than their "legalisa- homepage at http://www.lindesmith.org,where sev- crime, and therefore is both morally reprehensible and danger- tionist" counterparts, but it may be that I have not come across eral bibliographies are available;see Hallingby,L.:The Two Lindesmith Center Libraries on Drug Policy Reform: ous for society.This piece of conventional wisdom was success- them during the field trip because I have not looked in the right The Traditional Library and the Virtual Library,in fully propagated among political circles and society at large by places(21). However, it could also be because prohibition has Behavioral and Social Science Librarian,Vol. 17, N° 1, moral and religious leaders. American social historians say that been the rule for nearly 100 years, and currently enjoys the sup- 1998. these "symbolic crusaders" and "moral entrepreneurs" achieved port of the majority of legislators and citizens. Consequently, (21) Inciardi,J.& McBride,D.: Legalization:A High-Risk Alternative in the War on Drugs, in American victory in the battle for the meaning ascribed to drugs. Since anti-prohibitionists must work harder to shift opinion than do Behavioral Scientist,Vol.32, 1989. then, policy-making circles and the vast majority of the US (and those who defend the status quo. In this respect, it is interesting

FORMER NEXT 24 Chapter 3 to note that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has eventually won the day, possibly even beyond his own expecta- felt the need to produce a document, "Speaking Out Against tions, as is evidenced by present-day US drug policies (see (22) DEA: Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization, Drugs Legalization" (DEA previously had made public a similar below). (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/legaliz/contents.ht m).DEA also has a library,but would-be users have to document titled "How to Hold Your Own in a Drug Legalization obtain clearance before using it. Reports and testi- Debate"), explicitly designed to provide arguments to those Secondly, there are researchers who have taken the prohibi- monies on drug trafficking are available on the inter- supporting prohibition(22). DEA also has developed a pamphlet, tion/legalisation debate itself as an object of study(28). Among net homepage of DEA (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/). "Say it Straight: The Medical Myths of Marijuana", specifically those, a significant number of studies has been produced by the (23) DEA: Say it Straight: The Medical Myths of Marijuana (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/sayit/ aimed at countering the influence of the "medical marijuana economic modelists of the Drug Policy Research Center (DPRC) myths.htm#political) movement", whose media campaigning and political lobbying of the Rand Corporation who have sought to assess the cost- (24) Zimmer, L. & Morgan, J.: Marijuana Myths/ has reportedly succeeded in changing the legislation in effectiveness of current policies and proposed alternatives(29).On Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence, California and Arizona to allow marijuana use for AIDS and this and a wide range of other issues, the DPRC has been one of The Lindesmith Center,New York and San Francisco, (23) 1997. other patients in 1996 . The Lindesmith Center has played a the most noted, trusted and prestigious sources of research. By (25) See Bibliography, section on “Marijuana”. major role in the campaigns by providing arguments and and large,the conclusion of DPRC scholars is that policy,whether (26) Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP): money.The title of this DEA document closely resembles that of based on prohibition or legalisation, has a very weak impact on The National Drug Control Strategy, 1998: A Ten Year a book, "Marijuana Myths/Marijuana Facts", that was published drug use and that solutions to the "drug problem" of the United Plan, 1998-2007, Executive Office of the President, (23) Washington, 1998, p.53. by the Lindesmith Center in 1997 .Both publications list "facts" States, should be looked for elsewhere, for instance in "broader (27) Lindesmith, A.: "Traffic in Dope: Medical prob- and "scientific evidence" about the effects of marijuana, but features" of American society such as a comparatively higher lem", in The Nation Magazine, 21 April 1956; "Dope: obviously for opposite purposes(25). In addition, the latest "propensity for risk taking", weaker "informal social controls", Congress Encourages the Traffic", in ibid. 16 March "National Drug Control Strategy" issued by the federal govern- "inadequate provision of health care for the poor, unequal income 1957;Opiate Addiction,Principia Press,Bloomington, 1947;and The Addict and the Law,Indiana University ment in 1998, contains specific provisions in order to "counter distribution and a high level of criminal violence generally", accord- Press, Bloomington, 1965. Anslinger, H. & Tompkins, attempts to legalise marijuana"(26). ing to a 1997 article by Peter Reuter(30). But while Reuter stresses J.:The Traffic in Narcotics, Arno Press, New York 1980 the futility of drug policies for treating the drug problem, he (1953); Anslinger, H.: The Murderers, Farrar & Strauss, It is important to note that this debate partially follows the insists that the punitive "harshness" of current US drug policies New York 1961;The Protectors, Farrar & Strauss, New York,1964. traditional rift separating the conservative and liberal forces of has had extremely serious consequences on some groups of (28) See e.g. MacCoun, R., Kahan, J., Gillespie, J. & American society. Broadly speaking, and in spite of significant American society,charging that "one consequence of politicians' Rhee,J.:"A Content Analysis of the Drug Legalization exceptions on both sides,while conservatives are staunch pro- treating drug control as a moral crusade has been an absolute Debate",in Journal of Drug Issues,Vol.23,N° 4,1993; hibition supporters, liberals would tend to be in favour of vast- uninterest, bordering on gross negligence, in assessing the con- MacCoun, R.: "Drugs and the Law: A Psychological (31) Analysis of Drug Prohibition", in Psychological ly reforming the current drug control system. At any rate, sequences, good or bad, of the emphasis on punishment" .This Bulletin,Vol. 113, N° 3, 1993; non Rand examples in- "legalisationists" often accuse "prohibitionists" of being "con- latter statement suggests that,unlike politicians,American social clude Kleiman, M.: "Neither Prohibition nor servative", while "prohibitionists" say "legalisationists" are "lib- scientists have focused much recent attention on the rationale Legalization", in Daedalus,Vol. 121, N° 3, 1992; and erals". for, and the consequences of punitive drug policies.This type of Evans, R. & Berent, M.: Drug Legalization: For and Against, Open Court, La Salle, 1992. research is reviewed in the following section. (29) See, e.g. MacCoun, R. & Schelling,T.: "Assessing The present struggle opposing the DEA to the Lindesmith Alternative Drug Control Regimes", in Journal of Center also has roots in history, and it could even be viewed as The Drugs and Crime Nexus Policy Analysis and Management,Vol. 15, N° 3, June the second round of the "fight" that opposed Harry Anslinger to a) The Role of the Federal Government 1996; MacCoun, R. & Reuter, P.:"Interpreting Dutch Cannabis Policy: Reasoning by Analogy in the Alfred Lindesmith, a sociologist of the University of Indiana At the origins of drug control, specific punitive legislation Legalization Debate",in Science,Vol.278,3 October trained in the interactionist methodology of the University of was developed for minority drug users because it was said that 1997; and Rydell, P., Caulkins, J. & Everingham, S.: Chicago, after whom the Lindesmith Center is named. Then as drug use led minority members to commit crimes. In fact, sociol- "Enforcement or Treatment: Modeling the Relative now,the "ring" was American public opinion and policy-making ogists argue that this conventional wisdom was the vehicle of Efficacy of Alternatives for Controlling Cocaine", in Operations Research, Vol. 44, N° 5, September- circles, and the fight was about deciding whether drug addicts deep-rooted fears of immigrants and black Americans prevailing October 1996. should be treated as sick people or as criminals(27). Anslinger in "mainstream" American society at the time.Historians say that

FORMER NEXT 25 Chapter 3 Chinese and Mexican immigrants, together with the former patients(35).But this was rapidly mitigated by the major anti-crime slaves of the South were perceived as dangers to the economic legislation that was passed under the Nixon administration in security of the white working classes because they represented 1969, notably as a result of the youth movement that opposed a cheap competitive workforce. Early legislation treated these the war in Vietnam and generally rejected the dominant socio- minorities differently from white drug users. While the latter economic model of the "consumer society". This "counter-cul- were viewed as victims of a "deathly habit", the former were per- ture" of young rebels or would-be rebels was associated with ceived as criminals and (mostly local) punitive legislation was marijuana, and called for its decriminalisation, thereby generat- passed against them. For instance, in 1875, the authorities of San ing fear in mainstream society which has resulted in a tough Francisco, California, banned opium smoking, "a practice closely reaction by the authorities. President Nixon who waged identified with Chinese Americans"(32). America’s first "war on drugs" led the reaction. Nixon and the media put the drugs and crime issue at the centre of the politi- Later on from the 1930s onward, with the advent of FBN cal stage, identifying drugs as a major cause of crime and declar- Commissioner Harry Anslinger as America’s first (and longest ing America’s "drug problem" a "national threat". One result of serving) "Drug Czar" and the development of the antidrug the Nixon offensive was to reform and expand the antidrug bureaucracy, doctors’ power to prescribe drugs became increas- bureaucracy, notably by establishing the Drug Enforcement ingly restricted, and the drugs and crime nexus was gradually Administration (DEA) in replacement of the Bureau of Narcotics expanded to cover all drug use which came to be viewed as "un- and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD).Then, the Bush administrations of American". According to historians, this was achieved by a coali- the 1980s and early 1990s declared the new and much more tion of Treasury Department bureaucrats, a new generation of famous "war on drugs",which by and large has been carried over "antivice" activists and newspapers who, playing on racist, ethnic by the Clinton administrations since 1992. The pendulum of and ideological (of communists) fears, lobbied Congress into state and federal policy swung back again toward law enforce- adopting a ban on marijuana in 1937. It is the debate that pre- ment, now with a vengeance. ceded the ban on marijuana that entrenched the notion that (30) Reuter,P.:"Why Can’t We Make Prohibition Work drugs lead to crime. Historians say that, in effect, Anslinger creat- b) The Prison Problem Better? Some Consequence of Ignoring the ed and successfully promoted the idea — which has since grad- The tough federal antidrug legislation passed by Congress Unattractive", in Proceedings of the American uated to the level of conventional wisdom — that drug use leads under the Bush administration in the 1980s and the Clinton Philosophical Society,Vol.141,N° 3,September 1997, to crime in order to carve a larger turf, and therefore obtain more administration in 1995, and similar state laws, have resulted in an p. 263. See also Caulkins, J. Rydell, P.Everingham, S., Chiesa, J. & Bushway, S.: An Ounce of Prevention, a autonomy and prerogatives for his newly created Federal Bureau astounding growth in the country’s prison population. According Pound of Uncertainty: The Cost-Effectiveness of of Narcotics(33). to the National Drug Control Strategy published in 1998 by the School-Based Drug Prevention Programs,RAND,Santa Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a.k.a the "Drug Monica, 1999. This is a crucial turning point in the history of drug control in the Czar’s Office", there were 1,725,842 inmates in American federal (31) Reuter, op.cit., p.263. (36) (32) Bertram et al.: Drug War Politics, op.cit., p.64. United States, and even in the world given the "americanisation" of and state prisons and local jails in June 1997 .Between 1985 and (33) Musto, D.: The American Disease, op.cit.; Kinder, international drug legislation and the Commissioner’s influence in 1995 three quarters of the growth in the federal prison popula- D.: "Shutting Out the Evil", op. cit.; McWilliams, J.: international drug control instances(34). Indeed, from then and up to tion is accounted for by drug offenders, while "the number of "Through the Past Darkly", op.cit. the early 1960s, law enforcement became practically the only inmates in state prisons for drug-law violations increased by 487 per- (34) Bruun, K., Pan, L. & Rexed, I. : The Gentlemen's (37) Club: International Control of Drugs and Alcohol, means through which the government attempted to control drug cent over the same period" . Although it stresses that "while crime University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, use and trafficking. This trend was somewhat reversed with the in general continues to decline,arrests for federal drug-law violations 1975, p.161. departure from office of Anslinger and the rise of a "health" are at record highs", the government lists the staggering incarcer- (35) Bertram et al.,op.cit., pp.87-93. bureaucracy in the 1960s, especially under the administration of ation figures under the heading "criminal consequences" of (36) ONDCP: The National Drug Control Strategy, 1998, op.cit., p.17. John F. Kennedy, which temporarily imposed the idea that "America’s drug problem" and states that "many crimes (…) are (37) Ibid. addicts should be treated first and foremost as medical committed under the influence of drugs or may be motivated by a

FORMER NEXT 26 Chapter 3 need to get money for drugs" (see the research by Goldstein et al. prison(43). These laws deny judges their usual discretionary reviewed below)(38). In the period since 1980 the United States has powers when imposing a sentence, forcing them to hand built more prisons and incarcerated more people than at any down the minimum required by law no matter what extenu- other time in its history, largely as a result of the "war on drugs". ating circumstances may be involved. Although these laws About 60% of federal prisoners are drug offenders. In 1991, the were intended at first to address the disparity between sen- United States was found by researcher Marc Mauer to be the tences handed by judges and the time actually served by country with the highest incarceration rate in the world, surpass- those sentenced, and ensure that high-level drug traffickers ing Russia and then-apartheid South Africa (since, Russia has be removed from the scene, they have resulted in the massive (38) Ibid. Of course, here "crime" means unlawful become the first "incarcerator", the US coming second)(39). In spite jailing of low-level, non-violent, drug offenders, such as street acts — such as robbery, murder, rape, domestic vi- of a massive investment in correctional facilities by state and fed- dealers and mere drug users, for very long prison terms. They olence, etc. — other than drug production, traffick- eral authorities — resulting in the creation of a "prison-industrial have been found a costly and ineffective form of drug control, ing and use, which are crimes in and of themselves (40) due to prohibition. complex" according to some journalists and scholars — the mostly because others immediately replace the minor street (39) Mauer,M.:Americans Behind Bars:A comparison growth of the US prison population has clogged up the criminal dealers they put away for a long time. Thus, a Rand of International Rates of Incarceration,The justice system. As a result, the conditions prevailing in US jails and Corporation study has concluded that: "mandatory minimum Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C., 1991; prisons are inadequate in many instances and they have resulted sentences are not justifiable on the basis of cost-effectiveness at Americans Behind Bars: US and International Use of Incarceration, 1995, The Sentencing Project, in human rights abuses that have alarmed organisations such as reducing cocaine consumption, cocaine expenditures, or drug- Washington, D.C., 1997. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which have also related crime"(44). A conservative scholar like John Dilulio, self- (40) Schlosser,E.:"The Prison-Industrial Complex" in launched campaign against what they say is widespread police defined as "one of the few academics with a kind word for The Atlantic Monthly,Vol. 282, N° 6, December 1998; violence and abuse of power(41). imprisonment", recently wrote an article in the (conservative) Christie, N.: Crime Control as Industry, Routledge, London and New York, 1996 (1993). Schlosser de- National Review concluding that "with mandatory minimums, fines the prison-industrial complex as: "a set of bu- A distinct human rights problem is arising out of recently- there is no real suppression of the drug trade, only episodic sub- reaucratic,political and economic interests that en- adopted sentencing laws, especially the mandatory minimum stance-abuse treatment of incarcerated drug-only offenders, and courage increased spending on imprisonment, re- sentencing legislation now in force at the federal level and in hence only the most tenuous crime-control rationale for impos- gardless of the actual need." (41) See the campaign launched by Amnesty all 50 states. Such laws require prison terms (as opposed to ing prison terms — mandatory or otherwise — on any of International against various abuses,including sex- other forms of sanctions) for certain offences, including most them"(45).A Human Rights Watch study of the impact of manda- ual assault, homicide and torture by U.S. police and notably drug-law offences, and most stipulate a minimum tory minimums on low-level drug offenders in New York state prison authorities on http://www.amnesty.org. number of years the offender must serve. In many states, and has found that they violate "the inherent dignity of persons, the (42) Human Rights Watch: Cruel and Usual: Disproportionate Sentences for New York Drug most notably in New York, which pioneered the use of these right to be free of cruel and degrading punishment, and the right Offenders, Human Rights Watch Report, Vol.9, laws against drug offenders as early as 1973 (and whose "zero to liberty".The 1997 report adds: "such sentences contravene the No.2(B), Human Rights Violations in the United tolerance" policy is currently seen by many in Europe as a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International States,New York,March 1997,p.9,quoting Carmona model to follow), the required minimum for non-violent drug Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention v.Ward, 576 F.2d, 405 423 (éd Cir.1978) cert denied, 439 U.S.1091 (1979). offences is equivalent to, and in some cases higher than, the Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading (43) Ibid., p. 3. sentences usually awarded for violent crimes such as murder, Treatment or Punishment"(46). (44) Caulkins, J., Rydell, P.,Schwabe, W. & Chiesa, J.: rape and arson. One federal judge commented "it is difficult to Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences:Throwing Away believe that the possession of an ounce of cocaine or a $20 "street Similarly, the so-called "three strikes and you’re out" laws the Key or the Taxpayers’Money?,RAND,Santa Monica, 1997. sale" is a more dangerous or serious offense than the rape of a enacted in many states have been denounced as morally ques- (45) Dilulio, J.:“Against Mandatory Minimums:The ten-year-old, the burning down of a building occupied by people, tionable and shown by research to be costly and of disputable Disaster of Drug-Sentencing Laws”, in National or the killing of another human being while intending to cause effectiveness. Such legislation mandates lengthy sentences for Review,May 17,1999,p.48.A “drug-only offender”is him serious injury"(42). New York courts must give any adult con- repeat felons, prescribing that felons found guilty of a third seri- a person convicted of a breach of drug laws and no other crime. victed of possessing 4 ounces of cocaine or selling 2 ounces a ous crime be locked up for 25 years to life. The California law, (46) Human Rights Watch:Cruel and Usual,op.cit.p.2. minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life in which went into effect in March 1994, is probably the most

FORMER NEXT 27 Chapter 3 sweeping of these. Although the first two "strikes" accrue for before their arrest. In other words, they were poor. A more recent serious crimes, the crime that triggers the life sentence can be but related problem has been the female prison population, any felony. In many cases, this felony has been a low-level drug which grows above the national average, while the group with offence. Furthermore, the law doubles sentences for a second the highest growth rate are Black women(53). strike, requires that these extended sentences be served in prison (rather than in jail or on probation), and limits "good c) Rationale for Punitive Policies time" earned during prison to 20 percent of the sentence given Due to its status as the linchpin of present-day drug control, (rather than 50 percent,as under the previous law).A 1994 Rand and in view of the above-mentioned impact of recent antidrug study on California has found the legislation costly compared to legislation, the relationship between drugs and crime has been alternatives(47). the focus of abundant research in the United States, especially during the last ten to fifteen years. As mentioned above, here Another problem linked to the boom of the prison population "crime" means unlawful acts — such as robbery, murder, rape, that the 1998 ONDCP drug control strategy fails to mention but domestic violence, etc. — other than drug production, traffick- that was revealed by research, is what Troy Duster calls "the dark- ing and use, which are crimes in and of themselves due to pro- ening of US prisons"(48). This metaphor captures the fact that hibition. Indeed, the "Hawk ascendant"(54) which has had the Hispanic — and above all African — Americans have been incar- upper hand on US drug policy since the mid-1980s, and accord- cerated at a much higher rate than their whites counterparts. ing to which the best means for the state to fight drugs is to (47) Greenwood, P.: Three Strikes and You're Out: There were an estimated 1,471 Black inmates per 100,000 Black arrest and lock up (for increasingly longer jail sentences) those Estimated Costs and Benefits of California's New residents in 1993 compared to 207 white inmates per 100,000 who traffic and use them, has been largely supported and legit- Mandatory-Sentencing Law,RAND,Santa Monica,1994. (48) Duster,T.:"Pattern,Purpose,and Race in the Drug white residents in 1993, an incarceration ratio of Blacks to Whites imised by the assumption that drug users and dealers are despi- War: The Crisis of Credibility in Criminal Justice", in of more than 7 to 1(49). In 1994, African-Americans made up cable criminals who can inflict incredible damages on society, Reinarman & Levine:Crack in America,op.cit.,p.262. approximately 12% of the general US population,but constituted and as such deserve to be dealt with toughly. In simple terms, (49) DiMascio, W.: Seeking Justice: Crime and 44% of the sentenced inmates in state and federal prisons; the theory goes like this: drugs lead users to violently deny oth- Punishment in America,The Edna McConnel Clark Foundation, New York,1997, p.13. Hispanics (10% of the general population) provided 18% of ers their right to the safe enjoyment of life and private proper- (50) Ibid., p.13 inmates; while white Americans, who comprised 74% of the total ty; individuals are making a personal choice when they use (51) Mauer, M.: Young Black Americans and the population only represented 39% of state and federal inmates(50). drugs and therefore they should be held personally responsible Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later,The All told, Black people of Hispanic and other origins combined for this choice and its consequences on others; imprisonment is Sentencing Project,Washington, D.C., 1995. (52) Dilulio, J.: "Against Mandatory Minimums", op. made up 50% of the U.S.prison population.The disproportionate an adequate means of dealing with them, especially because it cit., p.50. impact of recent "drug control" policies on Blacks is summed up acts (or so the theory goes) as a deterrent against initiating drug (53) See,for instance,Huling,T.:Injustice Will Be Done: in the following fact reported by The Sentencing Project, a use. Those who supply drugs to others, and therefore induce Women Drug Couriers and the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Washington-based non-governmental organisation: on any them to crime while making a profit,deserve even tougher pun- Correctional Association of New York,New York,1992; Schiraldy, V., Kuyper, S. & Hewitt, S.: Young African given day in 1994, close to 1 in 3 African-American men aged 20 ishment because they are viewed as the vectors of the "drug Americans and the Criminal Justice System in California: to 29 were under the supervision of the criminal justice system,in scourge", and they have a strong incentive (money) to commit Five Years Later, Center on Juvenile and Criminal prison or jail or on probation or parole,and there were more Black this crime; therefore the deterrent against them needs to be Justice, San Francisco, Washington & Baltimore, males in prison than attending university(51). Nation-wide average stronger. The following passage of a 1969 Supreme Court deci- February 1996; Roberts, D.: "Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies:Women of Color, Equality, and the figures hide huge regional disparities.For instance,Dilulio reports sion illustrates the point:"Commercial traffic in deadly mind-soul- Right of Privacy", in Harvard Law Review, Vol.104, that in 1997, "about 95 percent of all persons in New York prisons and body-destroying drugs is beyond a doubt one of the greatest 1991;Szalavitz,M.:"War on Drugs,War on Women",in whose last and most serious conviction was for a drug offense were evils of our time. It cripples intellects, dwarfs bodies, paralyzes the On The Issue Magazine,winter 1998. black or Hispanic"(52). New York is one of America’s most populated progress of a substantial segment of our society, and frequently (54) Reuter,P.:"Hawks Ascendant:The Punitive Trend of American Drug Policy",in Daedalus,Vol.121,N° 3, states.This racial problem is compounded by the fact that half of makes hopeless and sometimes violent and murderous criminals Summer 1992. prison and jail inmates reported an income of less than $10,000 of persons of all ages who become its victims. Such consequences

FORMER NEXT 28 Chapter 3 call for the most vigorous laws to suppress the traffic as well as the classified as "drug related" by the New York Police Department most powerful efforts to put these vigorous laws into effect"(55). (NYPD), "psychopharmacological crack-related homicides" Although this theory has enjoyed bipartisan support in (homicides caused by the effects of drugs on the body) made Congress since the mid-1980s and justified the allocation of up only 7.5% of the sample and most were caused by alcohol, about 70% of the federal drug control budget to law enforce- crack being blamed in only 1.2 % of cases; "economic compul- ment, it is more associated with the conservative forces of U.S. sion homicides" (homicides caused by the need to fund a habit) (55) Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 426, 1969, society,which traditionally favour a "law and order" approach to represented a mere 2% of the sample,while the most numerous quoted in Wisotsky, S.: "Images of Death and Destruction in Drug Law Cases",in Trebach,A.& Zeese, problems. On the other side of the political spectrum, liberal category of actually drug-related homicides was that of “illicit K. (eds.): The Great Issues of Drug Policy, The Drug Americans lean toward a "social" approach and, as far as the market system homicides" (homicides caused by the "exigen- Policy Foundation,Washington,D.C.,1990,p.52. drug issue is concerned, would prefer it if drug users were not cies of working or doing business in an illicit market") with (56) However,a volume edited by Michael Tonry and treated as criminals (see above). 39.1%. One additional striking result of the study was that James Wilson, "Drugs and Crime", must be mentioned here.It seems to be quite an important com- 47.3% of what NYPD classified as "drug-related homicides" pilation of research results on the issue since the pa- It is not possible for this chapter to present an overview that were, in fact, not "drug-related" at all(59). Needless to say that the pers published in it have been quoted as reference would be adequately general and accurate enough to reflect results of this study, which was funded by the National Institute in much recent literature:Wilson,J.& Tonry,M.(eds.): the extent and diversity of the research done on this issue dur- of Justice (see below), are used by advocates of Drugs and Crime (Crime and Justice,Vol 13),University (56) of Chicago Press, Evanston, 1991. ing the last ten years . But an illustrative picture can be paint- legalisation/harm-reduction as evidence that current US drug (57) On the role of television in the Reagan "war on ed instead by focusing on an issue that has been subject to policies are based on erroneous assumptions regarding the drugs", see the excellent Media Studies research: much scrutiny: the effects of drugs on individual criminal links between drug use and violence, and that contrary to con- Reeves,J.& Campbell,R.:Cracked Coverage.Television behaviour. It is widely assumed that drug users routinely com- ventional wisdom prohibitive policies, not drugs, are to blame News, the Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy, Duke University Press, Durham and London, mit crimes in order to fund their habit. Another piece of con- for the largest proportion of drug-related violence because they 1994. ventional wisdom is that when people are under the influence generate a violent underground market. (58) Reinarman, C. & Levine, H.: "The Crack Attack: of drugs, they loose their inhibitions and commit crimes, espe- Politics and Media in the Crack Scare",in Reinarman, cially violent crimes. These notions provide the basis of current The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has been mentioned C. & Levine, H. (eds.): Crack in America,Demon Drugs and Social Justice, University of California Press, policies that blame illegal substance abuse and trafficking — by several researchers interviewed during the field study as the Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1997, pp. 22-23. instead of other factors such as poverty — for the high crime largest source of funds for research on the relationship between The authors note that the press later discovered rates prevailing in the United States. Through the media, senior drugs and crime.The NIJ is a research institution that was estab- that, in fact, the crack bag in President Bush’s hand U.S. officials routinely evoke them in order to rally support for, lished within the Department of Justice in 1969 by the legisla- had not been "seized" but bought for $2,400 from an African-American teenager by undercover DEA and justify the implementation of, the tough approach to drug tion voted in reaction to the counter-culture movement (see agents.Moreover,the agents had to work hard at en- control known as the "War on Drugs"(57). A very famous illustra- above). Today, the NIJ manages what it claims (rightly, as far as I ticing the teenager to carry out the sale in the park tion is President George Bush’s keynote televised speech on know) to be the largest research program on drugs and crime in mentioned by the president,and they did not arrest September 5, 1989. The president, holding a bag of crack he the world. This program is called the Arrestee Drug Abuse him... (59) Goldstein,P.,Brownstein,H.,Ryan,P.& Bellucci,P.: claimed had been seized "in a park across the street from the Monitoring Program (ADAM). It was established in 1997, replac- "Crack and Homicide in New York City: A Case Study White House" a few days before his appearance on television, ing a earlier similar project called "Drug Use Forecasting" (DUF), in the Epidemiology of Violence", in Reinarman, C.& declared that crack was "turning our cities into battle zones and which was launched in 1987. ADAM is a huge national effort Levine,H.(eds.): Crack in America,op.cit.,esp.pp.115- murdering our children" and announced his strategy for achiev- aimed at collecting and analysing data on drug use among peo- 122 and Table 6-1. (58) (60) ADAM collects data in county jails only, meaning "victory over drugs" . But a study carried out with federal ple arrested by county police forces throughout the United ing that no data is collected in state,federal and city funding by Goldstein et al. in New York City, "America’s crack States(60).Incidentally,and as an illustration of the influence of US jurisdictions; see the latest annual report: National capital", in 1988, when the "crack epidemic" received its most methods world-wide, government institutions in Australia, Institute of Justice: 1998 Annual Report on Drug Use intense media coverage, has shown that both assumptions are Chile, England, Scotland and South Africa have initiated pro- Among Adult and Juvenile Arrestees,Research Report, Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM), exaggerations of a much more ambiguous reality. Indeed, grams modelled on ADAM and requested technical assistance Department of Justice,Washington,April 1999. according to this piece of research on 414 homicides officially from NIJ.The latter has developed an international component,

FORMER NEXT 29 Chapter 3 I-ADAM, in order to produce comparative studies(61). ADAM’s d) "Set and Setting": An Essential Concept in the results, like DUF’s before them, show that drug use is far higher American Debate among arrestees than the general population, which establish- The concept of the social "set and setting" of drug use, or es a strong connection between drugs and crime. In turn, this "the characteristics of the conditions of use, the social conditions justifies the treatment of drugs as primarily a crime problem by that shape such situations and impinge upon the users, and the the authorities. Drugs and crime are inextricably linked, officials historically and culturally specific meanings and motives used to have argued following the line of argument developed by Harry interpret drug effects"(65) is a product of American research and it Anslinger starting in the 1930s. And indeed, if drug use is high- is a crucial notion in the American "drugs and crime" debate. er among offenders, it seems logical to deduct that drug use The concept was first developed by Norman Zinberg, Professor leads to the commission of crime. of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,in his 1984 book "Drug, Set, and Setting"(66), but it can be viewed as the latest finding of Or is it? While readily admitting that a nation-wide data col- a tradition in American social science research on drugs inau- lection effort such as ADAM is positive, some researchers inter- gurated in the 1940s and 1950s by sociologists Alfred viewed during the field trip added that ADAM betrays the US Lindesmith and Howard Becker.Zinberg concluded from a com- federal government ideological anti-drug bias and its willing- parative analysis of American and British heroin addicts in the ness to associate drugs and crime for reasons that have nothing late 1960s that the differences he found between the two to do with scientific evidence. Indeed, independent researchers groups were "attributable to their different social settings — that say that the causal relationship between drugs and crime is is, to the differing social and legal attitudes toward heroin in the merely a hypothesis that has not been proven true. Two schol- two countries"(67). Following in-depth interviews with heroin ars from the Earl Warren Legal Institute of the University of addicts in the 1940s, Lindesmith argued that there was a cogni- (61) Although NIJ says that I-ADAM is still at the California at Berkeley, Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, tive side to experimenting heroin addiction: users had first to starting phase, it has already produced one com- who have published a highly regarded study of drug control feel withdrawal symptoms, recognise them as such, and decide parative study: Taylor, B. & Bennett, T.: Comparing problems in 1995, even contend that it is untrue(62). Indeed, they to take more heroin to relieve them before they became addict- Drug Use Rates of Detained Arrestees in the United States and England, NIJ Report, Department of argue that while "it is beyond dispute that drug use and crime ed.Without this discovery, heroin use alone did not always lead Justice,Washington, April 1999. overlap and interact in a multiplicity of ways"(63), the higher rate of to addiction, Lindesmith concluded(68). Becker, in his famous (62) See Zimring, F. & Hawkins, G.: The Search for drug use among offenders could be explained by factors in chapter on "Becoming a Marijuana User" (first published in Rational Drug Control, Cambridge University Press, their personality,such as a higher propensity for taking risks and 1953) followed in the steps of Lindesmith,showing that in order Cambridge, New York and Melbourne, 1995, p.138. (63) Ibid., p.137. "a willingness to ignore the threat of moral condemnation", that to experience a marijuana high", new users had to be taught by (64) Ibid., p.140. lead them to both commit crimes and take drugs. In this view, experienced smokers how to smoke, how to recognise initially (65) This is the definition given in Reinarman, C. & both drugs and crime are simultaneous but independent con- ambiguous effects, and then how to interpret the latter as plea- Levine,H.:"Crack in Context:America’s Latest Demon sequences of other variables; in simple terms: it is not drug use surable. Becker concluded that social interaction between users Drug", in Reinarman, C. & Levine, H. (eds.): Crack in America, op.cit., p.9. that causes crime but rather other factors that lead the vast is more important than the chemical interaction of cannabis (66) Zinberg, N.: Drug,Set,and Setting:The Basis for majority of those who commit crime to also take drugs. Zimring with the body in order to account for the effects of marijuana Controlled Intoxicant Use,Yale University Press, New and Hawkins add that if the propensity for taking risks and on users.(69) These concepts run contrary to an important Haven, 1984. ignore condemnation varies across individuals, the same goes assumption behind current US (and other countries) drug poli- (67) Ibid., p.x, quoted in Reinarman & Levine "Crack in Context", op.cit.p.9. for the social environment of individuals, which is also a source cy: drugs are addictive in and of themselves regardless of the (68) Lindesmith, A.: Opiate Addiction,op.cit.,quoted of explanations for higher crime rates and higher rates of drug context in which they are used. Hence the charge by some pre- in ibid. use: "The same sort of covariation can be expected to occur in sent-day scholars that policy is “pharmaco-centric(70)" or pervad- (69) Becker, H.: Outsiders,op.cit., chapter 3. social settings.Conditions of social disorganization that invite high ed by "pharmacological determinism(71)", because it claims that (70) The term is by John Morgan, interviewed in New York on May 5, 1999. levels of predatory crime prove to be least resistant to the spread of the problem lies with the substances, not the people and their (71) Reinarman & Levine:Crack in Context,op.cit.,p.8. illicit drugs."(64) environment.

FORMER NEXT 30 Chapter 3 Although originally the concept of "social setting" was area of New York City(76). Bourgois’s penetrating analysis of "the invented to account for differences in the behaviour of two sets complex relationship between ideological processes and material of drug abusers, Zimring and Hawkings (see above) and other reality, and between culture and class" broadly confirms that scholars(72), have used it to explain higher rates of criminal activ- poverty, racial and ethnic prejudice and the absence of good ity, especially drug dealing, in some communities.This is anoth- job opportunities are major factors for the spread of drug use er extremely important element of the drug and crime nexus and trafficking in American cities. But, rejecting such "action- (and of the American drug control debate in general), as well as reaction" structural types of explanation as those advanced by a major cause of disagreement between researchers and policy- Clayton and Hagedorn, Bourgois analyses the mechanisms by makers. Briefly put, social scientists argue that drugs are singled which some of El Barrio’s residents seek to lead a meaningful out as a convenient scapegoat on which to blame problems and fulfilling life by getting involved in the crack business. that have other causes. These causes are to be found in the Bourgois destroys the popular image of a badly socialised and wider social and economic environment of the communities therefore unemployable "underclass" ignorant of the values of where drug activities are rife. Present policies are misguided mainstream American society, by portraying Spanish Harlem’s because they view drugs as the cause of social problems, when crack businesspeople as "the ultimate ‘rugged individualists’" in fact they are a consequence of these problems.This is mostly who are "frantically pursuing the American dream" through the argument made by Richard Clayton in his study of commer- hard work in the "dynamic, (…) multibillion-dollar underground cial marijuana cultivation in Appalachian Kentucky(73). Clayton economy". The American anthropologist shows how illegal argues that the marijuana industry is one of the ways that the entrepreneurship provides the "dignity" that the mainstream inhabitants of the mountainous areas of Kentucky have found economy denies them. Indeed, given their social and cultural (72) See the review of Paul Gootenberg’s Cocaine: to survive in the economic poverty that characterises their background, all the formal economy has to offer to inner-city Global Histories, below. region: "chronic and crushing poverty have produced a pervasive dwellers is what they perceive as "demeaning exploitation" in (73) Clayton, R.: Marijuana in the "Third World": sense of hopelessness about the future, an alienation and cynical low-level, poorly paid jobs, where their ghetto ways are mocked Appalachia,U.S.A.,Vol.5,Studies on the Impact of the attitude about the present,and a willingness to do whatever is nec- and frowned upon. But a successful quest for "respect" in the Illegal Drug Trade,United Nations Research Institute (74) for Social Development and the United Nations essary in order to get by" . In another study of 28 mostly Black crack business "requires a systematic and effective use of vio- University, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder and and Latino owned "drug businesses" in two inner-city commu- lence against one’s colleagues, one’s neighbors, and to a certain London,1995. nities of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, John Hagedorn argues along extent, oneself". In the drug economy of the inner city, a reputa- (74) Ibid., p.61. similar lines that "poor people in Milwaukee have responded to tion of ruthlessness is necessary for the smooth and secure run- (75) Hagedorn, J.: The Business of Drug Dealing in Milwaukee,Wisconsin Policy Research Institute re- the loss of "good jobs" by starting thousands of new, mainly off- ning of one’s business because it wards off aggressive competi- port,Vol.11, N° 5, June 1998, p.1. the-books businesses.The most profitable business in this infor- tors and thieves and enforces the "contracts" entered into with (76) Bourgois,P.:In Search of Respect:Selling Crack in El mal sector of our economy, unfortunately, is the business of employees and business partners. In this view, violence is not a Barrio,Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,New drug selling"(75). According to Clayton and Hagedorn’s studies, mark of their irrationality but rather "judicious public relations, York and Melbourne, 1995; a shorter version of the study as been published in Contemporary Drug poverty and marginalisation due to racial, ethnic and/or cultur- advertising, rapport building, and long-term investment in one’s Problems, Vol. 16, 1989, but this paper’s review of al differences are to blame for the involvement into drugs of res- human capital"(77). Their survival and success are dependent Bourgois’work is based on yet another version titled idents of rural and urban economically deprived areas of the upon their capacity for terror.This could explain why "illicit mar- "In Search of Horatio Alger:Culture and Ideology in the United States. ket system homicides" was the most numerous category in the Crack Economy",in Reinarman & Levine (eds.):Crack in America,op.cit.Other important contributors to the above-mentioned study of crack-related homicides in New York ethnographic school of American drug research (of But probably the best research in this regard, and certainly City by Goldstein et al. Bourgois also has developed a concept which Howard Becker is the best-know representa- one that was quoted as such by most of the researchers inter- to account, at least partially, for the spread of crack abuse in tive) include Waldorf, D., Reinarman, C. & Murphy, S.: viewed during the field study, is Philippe Bourgois’s in-depth inner-city ghettos starting in the mid-1980s — "conjugated Cocaine Changes:The Experience of Using and Quitting, Temple University Press,Philadelphia,1991. anthropological study of a group of Puerto Rican crack oppression".This he defines as "an ideological dynamic of ethnic (77) Ibid., p.66. entrepreneurs in Spanish Harlem, an economically deprived discrimination that interacts explosively with an economic dynam-

FORMER NEXT 31 Chapter 3 Foreign Issues ic of class exploitation to produce an overwhelming experience of oppression that is more than the sum of the parts"(78). All told, Early Narco-Diplomacy inner-city residents live in a "culture of terror" akin to that which The federal government of the United States pioneered was developed as "a tool for domination and a principal medium international drug control efforts at the start of the 20th century, for political practice" by the military dictatorship in 1970s and to this day drugs remain an important foreign policy con- Argentina. The culture of terror affects even the residents who cern, especially toward Latin America and in particular NAFTA are not involved in criminal activity since it "poisons interperson- partner Mexico. As a consequence, the relationship between US al relations throughout much of the community by legitimizing foreign policy and drugs have been the object of much research violence and mandating distrust"(79).The tragic irony is that unlike by American social scientists, giving rise to a lively and diverse Latin America, the inner-city culture of terror is not imposed by tradition that is briefly reviewed in the paragraphs below. The a repressive outside force but self-inflicted as a result of the pur- reason that U.S. officials have historically invoked to justify their suit of the American dream. Although Bourgois says that this is country’s "narco-diplomacy", is the perceived need to stop also a "culture of resistance (…) defined by its stance against main- drugs before they enter the United States. "Supply reduction", stream white,racist,and economically exclusive society"(80),his con- as this strategy has been termed in policy and research papers clusion is profoundly pessimistic: "the objective, structural des- since the 1980s, can be viewed as a recent avatar of the much peration of a population without a viable economy and facing the longer standing domestic use of law enforcement as the barriers of systematic discrimination and marginalization gets favoured tool of drug control.Likewise,those who used to advo- channeled into self-destructive practices"(81). In his view, present- cate for the "treatment" of addicts instead of their criminalisa- day American society generates a "self-regulating" class of tion, now talk of the need for "demand reduction" (admittedly, social outcasts fed by the illegal economy who are led to kill one that includes prevention as well as treatment). Therefore, it another by their own culture (terror) and ideology — the appears that the concepts supporting the foreign drug policy of American dream. the US government are a modernised version (and one that sounds more "scientific") of the old ingredients of the American The interest of Bourgois’s work is that it lends another debate mentioned earlier in this chapter. The fact that these dimension to the American "drugs and crime nexus".It could be terms are now used throughout the international community is argued that what he describes is a very ruthless type of "social one more illustration of the influence the United States carries usefulness" of the drug trade, in that it subsidises the economy in the field of drugs. of deprived areas while substance abuse and self-centred violence keep the "dangerous classes" at bay. Indeed, if drugs were The earliest trace of a paper about drug policy published in not there would the "underclass" not direct its violence against an American journal that this writer has found is Raymond the mainstream society and economy that reject them? Is the Buell’s 1925 critical assessment of the intransigence of drugs and crime nexus a "modern" type of social management American diplomats toward foreign counterparts during the of the unemployed labour force resulting from the large-scale conferences on opium at the League of Nations in Geneva in shifts in the American economy since the 1980s? These impor- the 1920s(83).Buell wrote that American representatives at one of (78) Ibid., p.72. (79) Ibid., p.68. tant questions will not be answered here, but it must be the conferences, which aimed at establishing a form of interna- (80) Ibid., p.63. remarked that for a proportion of the United States population, tional control on the opium trade, were asking many important (81) Ibid., p.63. drugs seem to play the same role as in parts of Africa, Asia, Latin concessions, which their counterparts refused to grant. As a (82) See Laniel, L.: Drugs and Globalization: An America and Europe — subsidising the economy(82). result, the American delegation angrily left the negotiating Equivocal Relationship,in International Social Science Journal, N° 160, June 1999. table. True, Buell’s paper is better described as political com- (83) Buell, R.: The Opium Conferences,inForeign mentary than as research, while Foreign Affairs, which pub- Affairs,Vol.3, July 1925. lished it, is more a forum for debating US foreign policy options

FORMER NEXT 32 Chapter 3 (84) See, e.g., Bagley, B.: The New Hundred Years War? U.S. National Security and the War on Drugs in Latin than a social science journal (although social scientists often with it(85). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, most attention was America,in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World write in it). Nevertheless, in retrospect Buell’s scolding of the focused on Mexico(86), while in the mid-1980s, with Reagan’s Affairs,Vol.30,N° 1,Spring 1988; Colombia:The Wrong Strategy,in Foreign Policy, N° 77, Winter 1989-1990; attitude of American officials in a diplomatic meeting on the and Bush’s war on cocaine and the war against "communist After San Antonio,in Journal of Interamerican Studies question of opium control can be viewed as an important land- subversion" in Central America, Andean countries came to the and World Affairs, Vol. 34, N° 3, Fall 1992; Bagley, B. & mark. Firstly, it is the first occurrence of what would become a foreground(87). With the advent of NAFTA in 1994, Mexico has Walker, W. (eds.): Drug Trafficking in the Americas, permanent feature in US research: criticising a federal govern- attracted much interest in both political and research circles Transaction Publishers,New Brunswick,1994. (88) (85) For instance, Falco, M. : Foreign Drugs, Foreign ment position because it makes things worse, not better. In this (see below) . Wars, in Daedalus,Vol. 121, N° 3, Summer 1992; Lee, instance, Buell describes American intransigence in Geneva as R.: The White Labyrinth: Cocaine and Political Power, irrational given the international context at the time because A second category of authors are concerned with the nega- Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, instead of working for a compromise, which would have meant tive consequences of US narco-diplomacy in Latin America, 1989; Reuter, P.: The Limits and Consequences of U.S. Foreign Drug Control Efforts, RAND/RP-135, Santa a step toward fulfilling its objectives, the US delegation pre- mainly its adverse impact on human rights and, with the US- Monica, 1992; Smith, P. (ed.): Drug Policy in the ferred to take a high moral stand and forfeit the furtherance of promoted militarisation of the "drug war" in Andean countries Americas,Westview Press,Boulder,1992;Perl,R.:The US its goals. Buell describes this as a setback for international and Mexico, on democracy(89). Perhaps the most consistent Congress,International Drug Policy,and the Anti-Drug opium control efforts, which the United States itself had initiat- examples of such US narco-diplomacy critics are to be found in Abuse Act of1988,in Journal of Interamerican Studies (90) and World Affairs,Vol.30,N° .2 & 3,Summer/Fall 1988; ed some 15 years earlier at the Shanghai conference of 1909. A the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) , while etc.; see Bibliography,section on the Americas. second and more specific reason why Buell’s article is important human rights violations resulting from US-promoted drug (86) Craig, R.: La Campaña permanente,Mexico’s Anti- here is that it is also the first recorded trace of scholarly com- enforcement tactics in foreign countries have also attracted nega- Drug Campaign,in Journal of Interamerican Studies and mentary on American "narco-diplomacy", even if it was not yet tive comments from Human Rights organisations(91). World Affairs,Vol.20,N° 2,May 1978;Operation Condor: Mexico’s Anti-Drug Campaign Enters a New Era,inThe named that at the time. Again, Buell’s harsh criticism seems in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs,Vol. retrospect to be the start of a stream in American social science Finally, the third category is made up of authors who study 22, N° 3, August 1980; Walker,W.: "The United States, writing that is still very much vivid today,albeit more diversified. the links between American federal agencies, especially the Mexico and Narcotics Policy, 1930-1940", in Pacific Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and drug trafficking outside Historical Review,N° 47,1978. Present Research: Summary Review (92) (87) For instance,Drexler,R.:Colombia and the United the United States . Like their most famous representative, his- States: Narcotics Traffic and a Failed Foreign Policy, The vast majority of present research focuses on United torian Alfred McCoy, these authors contend that recent McFarland, Jefferson, 1997; Andreas, P.& Sharpe, K.: States-Latin American relations and is mostly concerned with American drug "epidemics" are due to CIA complicity with for- Cocaine Politics in the Andes,inCurrent History,Vol.91, cocaine, while in the 1960s and 1970s it was Asia and heroin eign drug producers and traffickers and denounce the war on N° 562, February 1992; Mabry, D.: Andean Drug Trafficking and the Military Option,inMilitary Review, that preoccupied researchers and policy-makers. Broadly drugs as a fraud. vol.LXXI,N° 3,March 1990 Youngers,C.:The Andean speaking, present-day scholars working on US foreign policy Quagmire: Rethinking US Drug Control Efforts in the all agree that it is flawed, but for different reasons. Three cate- MOST and the United States Andes,WOLA Briefing Series: Issues in International gories of research can be identified in this respect. The first One of MOST network members, Mexican sociologist Luis Drug Policy, Washington, D.C., March 1996; see Bibliography, section on "Andean Countries". and more numerous category is made up of what could be Astorga, has written chapters in two forthcoming volumes, (88) For instance, Andreas, P.: US-Mexico: Open called the self-appointed "advisors" of the federal govern- which, judging from their introductions that the editors kindly Markets, Closed Borders, in Foreign Policy, No. 103, ment. Probably the best-known representative of this catego- have made available, appear as important contributions in con- Summer 1996; Doyle, K.: Drug War: A Quietly ry is Bruce Bagley, who is working in the field of International temporary US research on drugs.Astorga’s participation and the Escalating Failure,in NACLA Report on the Americas, (84) Vol.XXVI,N° 5,May 1993 ;Olson,E.:The Evolving Role Relations . From a variety of angles, these authors evaluate originality of the books amply justify that they be briefly com- of Mexico’s Military in Public Security and Antinarcotics the policies implemented by Washington and criticise US mented upon here. Programs, WOLA Briefing Series: Issues in narco-diplomacy as ill-adapted to fulfil its officially stated International Drug Policy, Washington, D.C., May objective of reducing the supply of drugs coming from Latin The first volume, Organized Crime & Democratic Governability 1996 ; González, G. & Tienda, M. (eds.): The Drug Connection in US-Mexican Relations, University of America into the United States.This is because the US strategy in Mexico and the US-Mexican Borderlands, is edited by political California, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, La Jolla, itself is flawed and because other, more important, US foreign- scientists John Bailey and Roy Godson(93). Its importance lies in 1989; see Bibliography, section on "Mexico". policy priorities, such as economic policy, are in contradiction the fact that, for the first time as far as this writer knows, leading

FORMER NEXT 33 Chapter 3 (89) For instance,Craig,R.:Human Rights and Mexico’s Anti-Drug Campaign,in Social Science Quarterly,Vol. American political scientists critically examine the links into cocaine since the 1860s. Building from this legacy, but firm- 60, N° 4, March 1980. between government and organised crime, not only in Mexico ly rooted in the present (the "Age of Crack"), the book sets out (90) For instance, WOLA: The Colombian National but in the United States as well. Although the book restricts its to inaugurate a "third wave" of research into cocaine, the foun- Police, Human Rights, and US Drug Policy, Washington Office on Latin America,Washington, focus to the impact of organised crime in the American border dations of which Gootenberg defines in the introduction. From May 1993; Peru Under Scrutiny: Human Rights and area only (as opposed to the United States as a whole), it is sig- the outset, the book announces its "skepticism about prohibition U.S. Drug Policy, Briefing #5,Washington Office on nificant because it can be seen as reversing a long-standing as sound drug policy and about the discourse and categories Latin America,Washington, January 1992. trend in American discourse on the drugs issue. Indeed, judging deployed and left by anti-drug crusaders, past and present", which (91) For instance, Méndez, J.: The "Drug war" in Colombia: The Neglected Tragedy of Political from most past press and research reports, casual observers are thought of as "social-scientifically futile, actively misguided or Violence, An Americas Watch report, Human Rights could have thought that the United States was immune from morally tragic". Dissatisfaction with US drug policy has been a Watch, New York,1990. the "threat" of large-scale drug trafficking and money launder- historical hallmark of drug research in America, as this chapter (92) McCoy,A.:The Politics of Heroin:CIA Complicity in ing organisations that their politicians and bureaucrats have has tried to show. However, Gootenberg stresses that his objec- the Global Drug Trade,Lawrence Hill Books,New York, (94) 1991; McCoy, A. & Block, A. (eds.): War on Drugs: denounced so vocally in Latin America, especially Mexico .As tive is not political advocacy, but methodological consistency Studies in the Failure of U.S.Narcotics Policy,Westwiew Bailey and Godson understate in their introduction to the vol- by clearly identifying the object of the book, which is to study a Press, Boulder and Oxford, 1992; Scott, P.D. & ume: "This is a point of some controversy, in that Mexican critics "system —Prohibitions — so as to analyze its origins as a system Marshall,J.:Cocaine Politics,Drugs,Armies and the CIA have long been skeptical that US-based, Anglo-dominated crimi- and its systematic, if often unintended, consequences". The book in Central America, University of California Press, Berkeley and Oxford, 1991. nal groups would allow such immensely profitable operations to thereby takes on board present research concerns in the United (93) Bailey, J. & Godson, R.: Organized Crime & be run by Mexicans"(95).This is all we will say about this interesting States,while its authors rely on concepts that have emerged out Democratic Governability in Mexico & the US-Mexican forthcoming collective volume here, since its focus on one part of American social science, some of which have been men- Borderlands, in press, 1999. of the world is perhaps too narrow to be of interest to all MOST tioned in this chapter. For instance, while explaining the "con- (94) There are important,although not widely publicised, exceptions to this general rule, see for in- members. structionist" epistemological approach of the book, stance Brewton, P.: The Mafia,CIA & George Bush, SPI Gootenberg calls forth the classic concept of "set and setting", Books, New York 1992 for a well-documented, care- By contrast, the second collective volume, Cocaine: Global which comes from American sociology and psychiatry (see ful, journalistic study; for equally well documented Histories, edited by Paul Gootenberg, Professor of history at the above), and shows its relevance for history, too: "History and and careful scholarly work, see Block, A.: Masters of Paradise.Organized Crime and the Internal Revenue State University New York (SUNY), has a global scope and raises national cultures, in an enlarged sense, are arguably social set and Service in the Bahamas,Transaction Publishers, New issues that should attract the attention of all MOST settings of the largest kind". In this view, drugs are first and fore- Brunswick, 1997 (1991); and Block, A. (ed.): The researchers(96). Alongside essays on the United States, Peru, most social animals, which justifies the book’s constructionist Business of Crime:A Documentary Study of Organized Japan (and South East Asia), the Netherlands (and Java), approach since, contrary to claims by American (and most Crime in the American Economy, Westview Press, Boulder, 1991. Germany, the United Kingdom and Colombia, Astorga has writ- other) policy-makers, "drugs are made, not born, and borne (95) John Bailey kindly granted me permission to ten the chapter on Mexico.It must be noted that all the chapters largely from cultural and political circumstances", while "natu- comment on a draft of his and Roy Godson’s intro- are based on original archival research as the authors are con- ralized notions of "good" and "bad" drugs and narcotic "control" duction. vinced that "new stories lie hiding in archives around the world, (…) might well be about other things and cry out for critical (96) Gootenberg, P.(ed.): Cocaine: Global Histories, (99) Routledge, London and New York,1999. that take us behind and beyond received narratives about insight" . Finally, possibly the most important contribution of (97) All quotations are from a draft of Paul cocaine"(97). Astorga’s socio-historical studies of drug trafficking the book, and certainly one that will please MOST members, is Gootenberg’s introduction to the volume,which he in Mexico are excellent illustrations of the usefulness of archives the notion that drugs should now be a "central" concern of his- kindly permitted me to comment on in this report. for new approaches to drug problems(98). Cocaine: Global torical research because they are "one field where the ongoing (98) Astorga, L.: Mitología del "narcotraficante" en México, Plaza y Valdés, Mexico City, 1995; El siglo de Histories studies how cocaine has passed from the status of contest between structural and post-structural historical think- las drogas, Espasa Hoy, Mexico City, 1996; Drug medical miracle to that of dangerous enemy of most countries ing might find some creative common ground". However, Trafficking in Mexico: A First General Assessment, and the international community in about 100 years or, as Gootenberg appears overly restrictive in limiting the usefulness MOST discussion Paper N° 36 Gootenberg puts it, "just how is it that drugs get redefined as of drug studies to opening new perspectives in history only.It is (99) For a more detailed discussion of this problem, see "Más allá del bien y del mal",chapter 1 in Astorga: socially menacing". One of the book’s many interests is hard to see why the increasing relevance of cultural-studies and Mitología,op.cit.,pp.15-22. Gootenberg’s impressive historiography of scientific research linguistic methodological approaches he evokes in support of

FORMER NEXT 34 Chapter 3 the volume’s own approach should not also be useful in other nic prejudice that historians say have been a permanent feature spheres of social science in order to open much needed new of American drug control since its origins in the late 19th century. fields of drug research, precisely because drug studies require "an appreciation of both the rational "interests" and irrational Other scholars (most notably those of the Drug Policy "passions" that met in their making, i.e. their realities and their rep- Research Center of the Rand Corporation), have argued that the resentations, their settings and special powers". Gootenberg’s drug phenomenon is not amenable to control by means of leg- well-crafted argumentation reveals the special research status islation. In this view, any drug control policy, whether based on of drugs, their uniqueness as a depository where both passion prohibition or legalisation, is a futile effort. However, the same and reason meet and interact(100) ("drugs are protean and rela- researchers have stressed that American policy-makers have tional things and cultural magnets for charged meanings"), and been "negligent" in not properly assessing the consequences of that research times are ripe for such subjects.This will be heart- the policies they have implemented. ening to social scientists specialising in drug studies worldwide, who are too often viewed as "mavericks" by their peers. Some scholars maintain that US drug policy is "pharmaco- centric", meaning that it wrongly assumes that the problem lies with the substances, not the people and their social, cultural, Conclusion ideological and economic environment ("set and setting"). Thus, many social scientists say that policy has been geared toward This chapter has attempted to present an overview of the suppressing the symptoms of deeper social problems in US problems raised by drugs in the United States by reviewing cur- society rather than attacking the root causes, which explains rent issues and their historical sources. It has suggested that the the failure of government action. In their view, drugs have been United States is the largest producer of drug research in the singled-out as a convenient scapegoat on which to blame and world, while it is also the world’s only "drug-control superpower". explain away some of the more disturbing problems experi- However, the simultaneous leadership in social science and enced by American society. The mirror-image of this charge world agenda setting is not the result of a symbiotic relationship could be to say that American drug policy has been "asociolog- between American research and policy-making.On the contrary, ical", or even "anti-sociological" due to the general disregard it it was found that historically US policy has been largely immune has shown for the social and economic conditions of the major- from the influence of research, even government-funded ity of those who are imprisoned under American drug laws. But research, while a vast proportion of American social science yet another school of research suggests that this assertion is research on drugs has been focused primarily on policy, which flawed by insisting that drug control policy is not aimed at con- has been viewed as a crucial element of America’s drug problem. trolling drugs but the "dangerous classes" that American main- (100) Incidentally, Gootenberg touches here on a While it has not been able to achieve its official objective of stream society has historically associated them with. Bourgois’s problem that was raised during the MOST conference in Rio.Network members might recall a debate reducing drug abuse, the current drug policy of the US has research has shed a different kind of light on the relationship between Guillem Fabre and the present writer on resulted in the imprisonment of a large proportion of the between drugs, poverty and racial/ethnic exclusion in present- that occasion: while Guillem argued that drugs American population, mostly poor members of ethnic and racial day America.By convincingly arguing that drugs have given rise should be studied as are any other (legal or illegal) minorities. Researchers have found that the causal relationship to a "culture of terror" that could be viewed as an internalised commodities, I argued that drugs were unlike any other substances due to their historical links to reli- between drugs and crime that serves as the basis and "rationale" and self-imposed mechanism of control, Bourgois joins Peter gion and war (see Proceedings of the II Annual for present policies has been vastly exaggerated. In addition, the Reuter and his colleagues in concluding that, even for the pur- Conference,p.6).Gootenberg solves the problem by stringent law and order approach adopted by the various levels pose of class control, harsh law enforcement is a futile exercise. stating that the interest of drugs is, precisely, that of US government has been found to be too costly in financial their study requires both the "normalized" economic approach called for by Guillem,and the "special" so- terms, while its enforcement has led to what appears to be Clearly,given the number and diversity of objective and sub- cial approach I favoured. widespread human rights abuse, and charges of racial and eth- jective factors at play, there are no easy answers to the drug

FORMER NEXT 35 Chapter 3 problem.But if one conclusion can be reached at the end of this chapter, it is that the drug issue has given rise to a century-long conflict between politics and research.The history of drug control in America seems to prove true Gootenberg’s claim that drugs must be viewed as the locus of passion and reason. The fact that so far reason has failed to bring passion under "control" in the United States suggests that MOST’s objectives will not be easily achieved and highlights the need for more programs like it.

FORMER NEXT 36 Chapter 3 DRUG CONTROL POLICY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES 1. Methodological and Economic Issues BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE: Lessons Learned from the Organized Crime Narcotics (OCN) Trafficking Enforcement Program Model, BJA Monograph, Department of Justice, Washington, December 1998.

CAULKINS,J.RYDELL,P.EVERINGHAM, S., CHIESA,J.& BUSHWAY, S.: An Ounce of Prevention,a Pound of Uncertainty:The Cost-Effectiveness of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs, RAND, Santa Monica, 1999. CAULKINS, J.: "What Does Mathematical Modeling Tell Us About Harm Reduction?", in Drug and Alcohol Review, Vol. 15, 1996. — "Dealing With the Country's Drug Problem", in BIBLIOGRAPHY OR/MS Today, February, 1995. This bibliography covers books and articles on various aspects of — "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Interdiction drug trafficking and drug policy published in the United States and Source Country Control",paper presented at the Economics between 1989 and 1999.The literature is listed in alphabetical or- of the Narcotics Industry Conference, 1994. der by author’s name and organised into ten sections: Drug- — & REUTER, P.: "Setting Goals for Drug Policy: Control Policy and Criminal Justice Issues; International Relations; Harm Reduction or Use Reduction?", in Addiction, Vol. 92, N° 9, Security and Military Issues; Money Laundering; History; 1997. Anthropology/Sociology; Latin American Studies; Bibliographical — & REUTER,P.:"The Meaning and Utility of Drug Issues;Marijuana;and Economics of Drug Trafficking and Use.Some Prices", in Addiction,Vol. 91, No. 9, 1996. sections are broken down into subsections when both the vari- — CRAWFORD,G.& REUTER, P.:“Simulation of ety of issues tackled and the number of entries made it possible. Adaptive Response: A Model of Drug Interdiction”, in Although in many cases the classification is arbitrary — because Mathematical and Computer Modelling,Vol. 17, N° 2, 1993. some works "straddle" several categories — it is hoped that it re- — EBENER,P.& McCAFFREY, D.: "Describing flects the comparative richness and diversity of research on drug DAWN's Dominion", in Contemporary Drug Problems, Vol. 22, trafficking and related issues in the United States. N° 3, 1995. DiNARDO, J.: "Law Enforcement, the Price of Cocaine and Caveat emptor: Although large, this bibliography does not Cocaine Use", in Mathematical and Computer Modelling, Vol. 17, claim to be exhaustive. The literature covered is that which I N° 2, 1993. became aware of during a one-month study trip to the United States in April/May 1999. Apologies are offered to the authors DRUG STRATEGIES: Keeping Score 1998,Washington, 1998. whose work should have been listed here and is not. — Keeping Score 1996, Drug Strategies, Washington, 1996. Laurent Laniel, Paris, June 1999. — Keeping Score 1995, Drug Strategies , Washington, 1996.

FORMER NEXT 37 Chapter 3 - Bibliography GREENWOOD,P.:"Strategies for Improving the Coordination RYDELL,P.,CAULKINS,J.& EVERINGHAM, S.: "Enforcement between Enforcement and Treatment Efforts in Controlling or Treatment: Modeling the Relative Efficacy of Alternatives for Illegal Drug Use", in Journal of Drug Issues,Vol. 25, N° 1, 1995. Controlling Cocaine", in Operations Research, Vol. 44, N° 5, September-October 1996. HAAGA, J., & REUTER, P. (eds.): Improving Data for Federal RYDELL, P.& EVERINGHAM, S.: Controlling Cocaine: Drug Policy Decisions, RAND, Santa Monica, January 1991. Supply versus Demand Programs, RAND, Santa Monica, 1994.

KAHAN, J., RYDELL,P.& SETEAR, J.: "A Game of Urban Drug THORNTON, M.: The Economics of Prohibition, University of Policy", in Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol. 1, Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1991. N° 3, 1995. — SETEAR,J.,BITZINGER,M.,COLEMAN, 2. The Drug Policy debate S. & FEINLEIB, J.: Developing Games of Local Drug Policy, RAND, ANDREAS,P.,BERTRAM,E.,BLACHMAN & M. SHARPE, K.: Santa Monica, 1992. Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial, University of California Press, Berkeley and Oxford, 1996. MacKENZIE,D.& UCHIDA, C. (eds.): Drugs and Crime: Evaluating Public Policy Initiatives, Sage,Thousand Oaks, 1994. BAUM,D.:Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure, Little & Brown, Boston, 1996. MURPHY,P.:Coordinating Drug Policy at the State and Federal Levels, Research Brief, RAND Drug Policy Research Center, RB- BAUMGARTNER,F.& JONES,B.:Agendas and Instability in 6005, Santa Monica, 1997. American Politics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1993.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE: Department of Justice BAYER,R.& OPPENHEIMER, G.: Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit and Department of Defense Joint Technology Program: Second Drugs in a Free Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Anniversary Report, Research Report, Department of Justice, and New York, 1993. Washington, February 1997. BENJAMIN,D.& MILLER, R.L.: Undoing Drugs: Beyond RASMUSSEN,D.& BERSON, R.: The Economic Anatomy of a Legalization, BasicBooks, New York, 1991. Drug War, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 1994. BENSON,B.& RASMUSSEN,D.:Illicit Drugs and Crime,The REUTER, P.:"Setting Priorities: Budget and Program Choices Independent Institute, Oakland, 1996. for Drug Control", in The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1994. — "Prevalence Estimation and Policy BICKEL,W.& DEGRANDPRE,R.(eds.):Drug Policy and Human Formulation", in Journal of Drug Issues,Vol. 23, N° 2, 1993. Nature: Psychological Perspectives on the Control, Prevention, and — "The Limits and Consequences of US Treatment of Illicit Drug Use, Plenum Press, New York, 1996. Foreign Drug Control Efforts", in The Annals,Vol. 521, 1992. — & MacCOUN, R.: "Harm Reduction and BOAZ,D.:The Crisis in Drug Prohibition, Cato Institute, Social Policy: Should Addicts Be Paid?", in Drug and Alcohol Washington, DC, 1990. Review,Vol. 15, 1996. BUGLIOSI,V.:The Phoenix Solution: Getting Serious about Winning America's Drug War, Dove Books, Beverley Hills, 1996.

FORMER NEXT 38 Chapter 3 - Bibliography DUKE,S.& GROSS, A.: America’s Longest War: Rethinking our LEVINE,H.& REINARMAN, C.: "From Prohibition to Tragic Crusade against Drugs, Putnam, New York, 1993. Regulation: Lessons from Alcohol Policy for Drug Policy", in Milbank Quarterly,Vol. 69, N° 3, 1991. EVANS,R.& BERENT, M.: Drug Legalization: For and Against, Open Court, La Salle, 1992. LONG, R.E., Drugs in America, H.W.Wilson, New York, 1993.

FALCO, M.: The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs that LYMAN,M.& POTTER, G.: Drugs in Society: Causes, Concepts, Work,Times Books, New York, 1992. and Control, Anderson Publishing, Cincinatti, 1991. — Winning the Drug War: A National Strategy, Priority Press, New York, 1989. MacCOUN, R.: "Drugs and the Law: A Psychological Analysis of Drug Prohibition", INCIARDI, J.: Handbook of Drug Control in the United States, in Psychological Bulletin,Vol. 113, N° 3, 1993. Greenwood Press, New York, 1990. — KAHAN, J., GILLESPIE,J.& RHEE, J.: "A — & McBRIDE, D.: "Legalization: A High-Risk Content Analysis of the Drug Alternative in the War on Drugs", in American Behavioral Legalization Debate", in Journal of Drug Issues, Vol. 23, N° 4, Scientist,Vol. 32, 1989. 1993. MacCOUN,R.&:REUTER P.:"Drug Control",in TONRY,M.(ed.): KAHAN, J.: Can Gaming of Social Policy Issues Help Translate The Handbook of Crime and Punishment, Oxford University Good Intentions into Change? RAND,Drug Policy Research Center Press, Issue Paper, Santa Monica, 1993. Oxford and New York, 1998. — "Interpreting Dutch Cannabis Policy: KLEIMAN, M.: Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results, Basic Reasoning by Analogy Books, New York, 1992. in the Legalization Debate", in Science, Vol. 278, 3 October — "Neither Prohibition nor Legalization”,in 1997. Daedalus,Vol. 121, N° 3, 1992. — & SCHELLING, T.: "Assessing Alternative Drug Control Regimes", KORNBLUM, W.: "Drug Legalization and the Minority Poor", in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 15, N° 3, in Milbank Quarterly,Vol. 69, N° 3, 1991. June 1996.

KRASKA, P.(ed.): Altered States of Mind: a Critical Observation MASSING, M.: The Fix, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998. of the Drug War, Garland Publishers, New York, 1993. McSHANE,M.& WILLIAMS, F. (eds.): Drug Use and Drug KRAUSS,M.& LAZEAR, E. (eds.): Searching for Alternatives: Policy, Garland Drug Control Policy in the United States, Hoover Institution Press, Publishers, New York, 1997. Stanford, 1991. MIECZKOWSKI, T. (ed.): Drugs, Crime, and Social Policy: LETWIN, M.: "Report from the Frontline: The Bennet Plan, Research, Issues, Street-Level Drug Enforcement in New York City and the and Concerns, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, 1992. Legalization Debate", in Hofstra Law Review, N° 18, 1990. MOORE, M.: "Drugs: Getting a Fix on the Problem and the Solution", in Yale Law & Policy Review,Vol. 8, 1990.

FORMER NEXT 39 Chapter 3 - Bibliography MURPHY,P.:Keeping Score: The Frailties of the Federal Drug STERLING, E.: "Drug Policy of a Failed User", in Legal Times: Budget, RAND Drug PolicyResearch Center Issue Paper, IP-138, Law and Lobbying in the Nation’s Capital, May 22 1995. Santa Monica, January 1994. — "Is the Bill of Rights a Casualty of the War on Drugs?", Paper presented at the 92nd Annual Convention of NADELMANN, E.: "Commonsense Drug Policy", Foreign the Colorado Bar Association, Aspen, September 14, 1990. Affairs,Vol.77, N° 1, January/February 1998. — "Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to SZASZ,T.:Our Right to Drugs: The case for a Free Market, Drug Prohibition", in Daedalus,Vol. 121, N° 3, 1992. Praeger, New York, 1992. — "Legalization is the Answer", in Issues in Science and Technology, summer 1990. THEVENOT, C.: Crises of the Anti-Drug Effort, 1999, Criminal — "Drug Prohibition in the United States: Justice Policy Foundation,Washington, 1999. Costs, Consequences and Alternatives", in Science, September 1, 1989. TREBACH, A.: "Tough Choices: The Practical Politics of Drug Policy Reform", in American Behavioral Scientist,Vol. 32, 1989. PETERSON, R.: The Success of Tough Law Enforcement, Vestal, — & ZEESE, K. (eds.): Strategies for Change: New York, 1996. New directions in Drug Policy, The Drug policy Foundation, Washington, 1994. SKOLNICK, J.: "Rethinking the Drug Problem", in Daedalus, — New frontiers in Drug Policy, Vol. 121, N° 3, 1992. The Drug Policy Foundation,Washington, D.C., 1991. — The Great Issues of Drug Policy, REINARMAN,C.& LEVINE, H. (eds.): Crack in America, Demon The Drug Policy Foundation,Washington, D.C., 1990. Drugs and Social Justice, University of California Press, Berkeley, — Drug Prohibition and the Conscience of Los Angeles and London, 1997. Nations,The Drug Policy Foundation,Washington, D.C., 1990.

REUTER, P.: "Why Can’t We Make Prohibition Work Better?" WALTERS,J.& O’GARA, J.: The Clinton Administration’s Some Consequences of Ignoring the Unattractive, in Continuing Retreat in the War on Drugs,The Heritage Foundation, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 141, N° 3, Backgrounder Update N° 279,Washington, July 1996. September 1997. — & CAULKINS, J.: "Redefining the Goals of WARNER, K.: "Legalizing Drugs: Lessons from (and about) National Drug Policy:Report of a Working Group", in American Economics", in Milbank Quarterly,Vol. 69, N° 4, 1991. Journal of Public Health,Vol. 85, N° 8, 1995. — "Hawks Ascendant: The Punitive Trend of WEATHERBURN,D.& LIND, B.: "Drug Law Enforcement American Drug Policy", in Daedalus,Vol.121, N° 3, Summer 1992. Policy and its Impact on the Heroin Market", in Addiction, Vol. V, — & HAAGA, J.: "The Limits of the Czar's N° 92, 1996. Ukase: Drug Policy at the Local Level," in Yale Law and Policy Review,Vol. 8, N° 1, 1990. WILSON, J.: "Against the Legalization of Drugs", in Commentary, February 1990. SHARP,E.:The Dilemma of Drug Policy in the United States, Harper Collins, New York, 1994. WISOTSKY, S.: Beyond the War on Drugs: Overcoming of a Failed Public Policy, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1990.

FORMER NEXT 40 Chapter 3 - Bibliography ZIMRING,F.& HAWKINS, G.: The Search for Rational Drug GOLDKAMP,J.& WEILAND,D.:Assessing the Impact of Dade Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York and County’s Felony Drug Court, National Institute of Justice, Melbourne, 1995. Washington, DC, 1993.

3.General Criminal Justice Issues GOLDSTEIN, P.: "Drugs and Violent Crime", in WEINER, N. & AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION:The State of Criminal Justice: WOLFGANG, M.: Pathways to Criminal Violence,Sage An Annual Report,Washington, DC, 1993. Publications, Newbury Park, 1989. — The Community Anti-Drug Coalition Initiative, Special Committee on the Drug Crisis, INCIARDI, J. (ed.): Drug Treatment and Criminal Justice Issues, Washington, DC, 1991. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, 1993. BECKETT, K.: Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics, Oxford University Press, Oxford IRWIN,J.& AUSTIN,J.:It’s About Time:America’s Imprisonment and New York, 1997. Binge,Wadsworth, Belmont, 1994. BELENKO, S., FAGAN,J.& CHIN, K.L.: "Criminal Justice Responses to Crack", in Journal of Research in Crime and MAUER,M.:Americans Behind Bars: US and International Use Delinquency,Vol. 28, February 1991. of Incarceration, 1995, The Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C., BELENKO, S., NICKERSON,G.& RUBENSTEIN,T.:Crack and 1997 (this is an update of similar studies published since 1991). the New York Courts: A Study of Judicial Responses and Attitudes, New York City Criminal Justice Agency, New York, December MOORE, M.: "Drugs, the Criminal Law, and the 1990. Administration of Justice,in Milbank Quarterly,Vol.69,N° 4,1991.

BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS: Drugs, Crime and the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE: When Neighbors Go to Justice System: A National Report, Government Printing Office, Jail: Impact on Attitudes About Formal and Informal Social Washington, December 1992. Control, NIJ Research Preview, Department of Justice, Washington, July 1999. CARTER, D.: "Drug-related Corruption of Police Officers: A — National Evaluation of Weed and Seed, NIJ Contemporary Typology",in Journal of Criminal Justice,Vol.18,1990. Research in Brief,Department of Justice,Washington,June 1999. — Reducing Crime and Drug Dealing by DONZINGER, S. (ed.): The Real War on Crime:The Report of the Improving Place Management: A Randomized Experiment, NJI National Criminal Justice Commission,HarperPerrenial,New York, Research in Brief, Department of Justice, Washington, January 1996. 1999. — 1998 Annual Report on Drug Use Among FINN,P.& NEWLYN, A.: Miami’s "Drug Court": A Different Adult and Juvenile Arrestees, Research Report, Arrestee Drug Approach, National Institute of Justice,Washington, DC, 1993. Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM), Department of Justice, Washington, April 1999. GAINES,L.& KRASKA, P.: Drugs, Crime, and Justice: — COWLES,E.,CASTELLANO,T.& GRANSKY, Contemporary Perspectives, Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, L.: "Boot Camp" Drug Treatment and Aftercare Interventions: An 1997. Evaluation Review, NIJ Research in Brief, Department of Justice, Washington, July 1995.

FORMER NEXT 41 Chapter 3 - Bibliography — MAXSON,C.:Street Gangs and Drug Sales in CAULKINS, J., RYDELL,P.,SCHWABE,W.& CHIESA, J.: Two Suburban Cities,NIJ Research in Brief,Department of Justice, Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences: Throwing Away the Key or Washington, July 1995. the Taxpayers’ Money?, RAND, Santa Monica, 1997. — HEPBURN,J.,JOHNSTON,W.& ROGERS,S.: Do Drugs,Do Time:An Evaluation of the Maricopa County Demand NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE: "Three Strikes and You’re Reduction Program, NIJ Research in Brief, Department of Justice, Out": A Review of State Legislation, NIJ Research in Brief, Washington, October 1994. Department of Justice,Washington, September 1997. — DUNWORTH,T.& SAIGER, A.: Drugs and Crime in Public Housing: A Three-City Analysis, NIJ Research Report, DILULIO, J.: "Against Mandatory Minimums: The Disaster of Department of Justice,Washington, 1994. Drug-Sentencing Laws",in National Review, May 17, 1999.

SADOVSKY BAGGINGS,D.:Drug Hate and the Corruption of DIMASCIO,W.:Seeking Justice: Crime and Punishment in American Justice, Praeger, New York, 1998. America,The Edna McConnel Clark Foundation, New York, 1997.

SCHLOSSER, E.: "The Prison-Industrial Complex", in The FAMM: History of Mandatory Minimums, Families Against Atlantic Monthly,Vol. 282, N° 6, December 1998. Mandatory Minimums (FAMM),Washington, 1998. — What’s Wrong with Mandatory Minimum US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: An Ananlysis of Non-Violent Sentences, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), Drug Offenders with Minimal Criminal Histories, Government Washington, 1992. Printing Office,Washington, 1994. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Cruel and Usual: Disproportionate WEISEL,D.:Police Antidrug Tactics: New Approaches and Sentences for New York Drug Offenders, Human Rights Watch Applications, Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, Report, Vol.9, N° 2(B), Human Rights Violations in the United 1996. States, New York, March 1997.

WEISHEIT, R. (ed.): Drugs, Crime, and the Criminal Justice HUSAK,D.:Drugs and Rights, Cambridge University Press, System, Anderson Publishing Company, Cincinnati, 1990. New York, 1992.

WILSON,J.& TONRY, M. (eds.): Drugs and Crime (Crime and GREENWOOD,P.:Three Strikes and You're Out:Estimated Costs Justice,Vol 13), University of Chicago Press, Evanston, 1991. and Benefits of California's New Mandatory-Sentencing Law, — Drugs and Crime: Review of Research, RAND, Santa Monica, 1994. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990.

4. Sentencing and Human Rights issues AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: United States: Human Rights MEIERHOEFER,B.:The General Effect of Mandatory Minimum Concerns in the Border Region with Mexico, AMR 51/03/98, May Prison Terms: A Longitudinal Study of Federal Sentences Imposed, 1998. Federal judicial Center,Washington, 1992. — Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York Police Department, AMR 51/36/96, June 1996. MUSCOREIL, K.: New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, The November Coalition, Colville, April/May 1998.

FORMER NEXT 42 Chapter 3 - Bibliography UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION: Cocaine and — Young Black Americans and the Criminal Federal Sentencing Policy, Government Printing Office, Justice System: Five Years Later, The Sentencing Project, Washington DC, February 1995. Washington, D.C., 1995. — "Alice in Wonderland Goes to Criminal Court, or How Do 5. Race, Ethnicity and Gender issues We Develop a More Effective Sentencing System?", in Public BROWN, R.: "The Black Community and the War on Drugs",in Law Review, Saint Louis University, 1994. TREBACH,A.& ZEESE, K. (eds.): The Great Issues of Drug Policy, — Lock 'Em Up and Throw Away the Key: The Drug Policy Foundation,Washington, D.C., 1990. African American Males and the Criminal Justice System, National Urban League,Washington, DC., 1993. CANY & NYSCCJ: Imprisoned Generation, A Report by the — & SHINE, K.: Does the Punishment Fit the Correctional Association of New York & the New York State Crime?: Drug Users and Drunk Drivers,Questions of Race and Class, Coalition for Criminal Justice, New York, 1990. The Sentencing Project,Washington D.C., 1993. — Young Black Men and the Criminal Justice EDSALL, T. with EDSALL, M.: Chain Reaction: The Impact of System: A Growing National Problem, The Sentencing Project, Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics, W.W. Norton, New Washington D.C., 1990. York, 1991. MEIER, K.: "Race and the War on Drugs: America’s Dirty Little FREEMAN, R.: "Crime and the Employment of Secret", in Policy Currents,Vol. 2, N° 4, 1992. Disadvantaged Youth", National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper N° 3875,Washington, 1991. MILLER, J.: Hobbling a Generation: Young African American Males in the Criminal Justice System of America’s Cities, National HULING,T.:Injustice Will Be Done: Women Drug Couriers and Center on Institutions and Alternatives, Alexandria, 1992. the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Correctional Association of New York, New York, 1992. MORLEY, J.: "White Gram’s Burden", in The Drug Policy Letter, N° 28, winter 1996. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Race and Drug Law Enforcement in the State of Georgia, A Human Rights Watch Short Report, Vol. 8, RENSHAW, K.: "A Civil Approach to a Controversial Issue: N° 4, July 1996. Minnesota’s Attempt to Deal with Mothers of Cocaine Babies", in Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy,Vol.11, 1990. KENNEDY, R.: Race, Crime and the Law, Vintage Books, New York, 1997. ROBERTS, D.: "Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies: Women of Color, Equality, and the Right of Privacy", in Havard LUSANE, C.: Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs, Law Review,Vol.104, 1991. South End Press, Boston, 1991. MAUER, M.: Race to Incarcerate, The Sentencing Project, Washington D.C., 1999. SCHIRALDY,V.,KUYPER,S.& HEWITT, S.: Young African — War on Drugs: Racial Impact of a Failed Americans and the Criminal Justice System in California: Five Years Policy,The Sentencing Project,Washington D.C., 1997. Later, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco, — "The Drug War’s Unequal Justice", in The Washington & Baltimore, February 1996. Drug Policy Letter, N° 28, winter 1996.

FORMER NEXT 43 Chapter 3 - Bibliography STERLING,E.:Racially Disproportionate Outcomes in LYMAN, M.: Gangland: Drug trafficking by Organized Processing Drug Cases, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, Criminals,Thomas, Springfield, 1989. Washington, September 1998. MacDONALD,S.& ZAGARIS, B. (eds.): International SZALAVITZ, M.: "War on Drugs, War on Women", in On The Handbook on Drug Control, Greenwood Press,Westport, 1992. Issue Magazine, winter 1998. McCOY,A.& BLOCK, A. (eds.): War on Drugs: Studies in the TONRY, M.: Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in Failure of US Narcotics Policy, Westwiew Press, Boulder and America, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1995. Oxford, 1992.

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FORMER NEXT 44 Chapter 3 - Bibliography TULLIS, L.: Unintended Consequences: Illegal Drugs & Drug SMITH, P. (ed.): Drug Policy in the Americas, Westview Press, Policies in Nine Countries, Lynne Rienner Publishers, New Boulder and Oxford, 1992. Brunswick and London, 1991. 3. Mexico 2. The Americas ANDREAS, P.:"US — Mexico: Open Markets, Closed Borders", ANDREAS, P.: "Profits, Poverty and Illegality: The Logic of in Foreign Policy, N° 103, Summer 1996. Drug Corruption", in NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. 27, N° 3, 1993. BAILEY,J.& GODSON, R.: Organized Crime & Democratic — "Dead-end Drug Wars", in Foreign Policy, Governability in Mexico & the US — Mexican Borderlands, in press, N° 85,Winter 1991-1992. 1999. BAILEY,J.& AGUAYO QUEZADA, S.: Strategy and Security in BAGLEY, B. "After San Antonio", in Journal of Interamerican US — Mexican Relations Beyond the Cold War, Center for US — Studies and World Affairs,Vol. 34, N° 3, Fall 1992. Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1996. BAGLEY,B.& WALKER, W. (eds.): Drug Trafficking in the Americas,Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1994. GONZÁLEZ,G.& TIENDA, M. (eds.): The Drug Connection in US — Mexican Relations,University of California,Center for US — DOYLE, K.: "Drug War: A Quietly Escalating Failure", in NACLA Mexican Studies, La Jolla, 1989. Report on the Americas,Vol. XXVI, N° 5, May 1993. MARES, D.: "Strategic Interests in the U.S.-Mexican GRIFFITH, I.: Drugs and Security in the Caribbean: Sovereignty Relationship", in BAILEY,J. & AGUAYO QUEZADA, S.: Strategy and Under Siege, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 1997. Security in US — Mexican relations Beyond the Cold War,Center for US — Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, KAWELL, J.: "Drug War: The Rules of the Games", in NACLA 1996. Report on the Americas,Vol. 23, N° 6, 1990. MARSHALL, J.: "CIA Assets and the Rise of the Guadalajara LOWENTHAL, A.: "The Organization of American States and Connection", in Crime, Law and Social Change, Special Issue: The Control of Dangerous Drugs", in SMITH, P.(ed.): Drug Policy in the Politics of Cocaine,Vol. 16, N° 1, July 1991. Americas,Westview Press, Boulder, 1992. PATERNOSTRO, S.: "Mexico as a Narco-Democracy", in World MABRY, D. (ed.): The Latin American Narcotics Trade and U.S. Politics Journal,Vol. 12, N° 3, 1995. National Security, Greenwood Press, New York and London, 1989. REUTER,P.& RONFELD,D.:Quest for Integrity: The Mexican- U.S. Drug Issue in the 1980s, RAND Note, Santa Monica, 1992. RILEY, J.: Snow Job? The War Against International Cocaine Trafficking,Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1996. TELLO PEÓN, J.: "Controlling Drugs: Strategic Operations and U.S. and Mexican National Interests", in BAILEY,J. & AGUAYO SCOTT,P.D.& MARSHALL, J.: Cocaine Politics, Drugs, Armies QUEZADA, S.: Strategy and Security in US — Mexican relations and the CIA in Central America, University of California Press, Beyond the Cold War, Center for US — Mexican Studies, Berkeley and Oxford, 1991. University of California, San Diego, 1996.

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MUSTO, D.: "Opium, Cocaine and Marijuana in American WHITESIDE, H.: Menace in the West: Colorado and the History", in Scientific American, July 1991. American Experience with Drugs, 1873-1963, Colorado Historical Society, Denver, 1997.

PENDERGRAST, M.: For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Unauthorized History of the World’s Most Popular Soft-Drink, ANTHROPOLOGY/SOCIOLOGY Scribner, New York, 1993. 1. General RIDGLEY, R.: Essential Substances: A Cultural History of ADLER,P.:Land of Opportunity: One Family’s Quest for the Intoxication in Society, Kadanswa International, New York, 1994. American Dream in the Age of Crack, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1995.

FORMER NEXT 51 Chapter 3 - Bibliography — Wheeling and Dealing: An Ethnography of an Analysis", in Contemporary Drug Problems,Vol. 16, 1989. Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community, Columbia University Press, New York, 1992. GÓMEZ, L.: Misconceiving Mothers: Legislators, Prosecutors, and the Politics of Prenatal Drug Exposure, Temple University BACHMAN, J., WALLACE, J., O’MALLEY,P.,JOHNSTON, L., Press, Philadelphia, 1997. CANDACE,K.& NEIGHBORS, H.: "Race/Ethnic Differences in Smoking, Drinking, and Illicit Drug Use Among American High- GORDON,D.:The Return of the Dangerous Classes: Drug School Seniors, 1976-89", in American Journal of Public Health,N° Prohibition and Policy Politics,W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1994. 81, 1991. HARREL,A.& PETERSON, G. (eds.): Drugs, Crime, and Social BENNETT,W.:Drug Policy and the Intellectuals, Speech at the Isolation: Barriers to Urban Opportunities, Urban Institute Press, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, December Washington, 1992. 11, 1989. HUMPHREYS,K.& RAPAPORT, J.: "From the Community BOURGOIS,P.:In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, Mental Health Movement to the War on Drugs: A Study in the Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York and Definition of Social Problems", in American Psychologist, Vol. 48, Melbourne, 1995. N° 8, 1993. — "In Search of Respect: The New Service Economy and the Crack Alternative in Spanish Harlem",Working JACOBS,B.& GEISS, G. (EDS.): Dealing Crack:The Social World Paper N° 21, Russel Sage Foundation, New York, 1991. of Streetcorner Selling, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1999. BREWTON,P.:The Mafia, CIA & George Bush, SPI Books, New York 1992. JOHNS,C.J.:Power, Ideology, and the War on Drugs: Nothing Succeeds like Failure, Praeger, New York, 1992. CERVANTES, R. (eds.): Substance Abuse and Gang Violence, Sage, Newbury Park, 1992. KANDEL, D.: "The Social Demography of Drug Use", in Milbank Quarterly,Vol.69, N°4, 1991. CLIFTON, M.: There Goes the Neighborhood, Prescott Press, Lafayette, 1993. MANDERSON, D.: "Metamorphosis: Clashing Symbols in the social construction of drugs", in The Journal of Drug Issues, N° 23, CURRIE,E.:Reckoning: Drugs, the Cities, and the American 1995. Future, Hill and Wang, New York, 1993. MURPHY, S., WALDORF,D.& REINARMAN, C.:“Drifting into FAUPEL, C.: Shooting Dope: Career Patterns of Hard-Core Dealing: Becoming a Cocaine Seller", in Qualitative Sociology, Heroin Users, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 1991. N° 13, 1990.

GLICK,R.& MOORE, J. (eds.): Drugs in Hispanic Communities, REINARMAN, C.: "The Social Construction of Drug Scares", in Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1990. ADLER, P. & ADLER, P. (eds.): Constructions of Deviance, Wadsworth, Belmont, 1994. GOLDSTEIN,P.,BROWNSTEIN,P.& BELLUCCI, P.:"Crack and — "Glasnost in US Drug Policy?: Clinton Homicide in New York City, 1988: A Conceptually Based Event Constrained", in International Journal of Drug Policy, N° 5, 1994.

FORMER NEXT 52 Chapter 3 - Bibliography LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES RUMBARGER, J.: Profit,Power and Prohibition: Alcohol Reform and the Industrializing of America, 1800-1930, University of AGUAYO QUEZADA, S.: "Intelligence Services and the New York Press, Albany, 1989. Transition to Democracy in Mexico", in BAILEY,J.& AGUAYO QUEZADA, S.: Strategy and Security in US — Mexican relations SIMON,D.& BURNS,E.:The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Beyond the Cold War, Center for US — Mexican Studies, Inner-CityNeighbourhood, Broadway Books, New York, 1998. University of California, San Diego, 1996.

STALEY, S.: Drug Policy and the Decline of American Cities, BURKE, M.: "Bolivia: The Politics of Cocaine", in Current Transactions Publishers, New Brunswick, 1992. History,Vol. 90, N° 553, 1991.

WALDORF,D.,REINARMAN,C.& MURPHY, S.: Cocaine HEALY, K.: "Political Ascent of Bolivia's Peasant Coca Leaf Changes:The Experience of Using and Quitting,Temple University Producers", in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Press, Philadelphia, 1991. vol. 33, N° 1, Spring 1991.

WALLACE,J.& BACHMAN, J.: "Explaining Racial/Ethnic HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Bolivia Under Pressure: Human Differences in Adolescent Drug Use: The Impact of Background Rights Violations and Coca Eradication, Human Rights Watch and Lifestyle", in Social Problems,Vol.38, 1991. Publications,Vol. 8, N° 4, May 1996.

WILLIAMS,T.& KORNBLUM,W.:The Uptown Kids: Struggle JOYCE,E.& MALAMUD, C.: Latin America and the and Hope in the Projects, Putnam, New York, 1994. Multinational Drug Trade, Saint Martin’s Press, New York, 1997. WILLIAMS,T.:Crackhouse, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading (USA), 1992. LEE, R.: The White Labyrinth: Cocaine and Political Power, — The Cocaine Kids, Addison-Wesley Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, 1989. Publishing Company, Reading (USA), 1989. LEONS, M.: "Risk and Opportunity in the Coca/Cocaine 2. Media issues Economy of the Bolivian Yungas", in Journal of Latin American ELWOOD,W.:Rhetoric in the War on Drugs: The Triumphs and Studies,Vol. 25, 1993. Tragedies of Public Relations, Praeger,Westport, 1994. — & SANABRIA, H. (eds.): Coca, Cocaine and the Bolivian Reality, State University of New York Press, New York, GONZENBACH,W.:The Media, the President, and Public 1997. Opinion: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Drug Issue, 1984-1991,L. Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, 1996. LUPSHA, P.: "Transnational Narco-Corruption and Narco- Investment: A Focus on Mexico", in Transnational Organized REEVES,J.& CAMPBELL, R.: Cracked Coverage. Television Crime,Vol. 1, N° 1, Spring 1995. News, the Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy,Duke — "Drug Lords and Narco-Corruption: The University Press, Durham and London, 1994. Players Change but the Game Continues", in McCOY,A.& BLOCK, A. (eds.): War on Drugs: Studies in the Failure of US REINARMAN,C.& LEVINE, H.: "Crack in Context: Politics and Narcotics Policy,Westwiew Press, Boulder and Oxford, 1992. Media in the Making of a Drug Scare", in Contemporary Drug Problems,Vol. 16, 1989. MORALES,E.:Cocaine: White Gold Rush in Peru, University of Arizona Press,Tucson, 1989.

FORMER NEXT 53 Chapter 3 - Bibliography MARIJUANA PAINTER, J.: Bolivia and Coca: A Study in Dependency, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, 1994. CLAYTON, R.: Marijuana in the "Third World": Appalachia,USA, Vol. 5, Studies on the Impact of the Illegal Drug Trade, United POPPA,T.:Drug Lord:The Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin, Nations Research Institute for Social Development and the Pharos Books, New York, 1990. United Nations University, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder and London, 1995.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ISSUES GRINSPOON, L.: Marihuana Reconsidered, Quick American Archives, Oakland, 1994. BAGLEY, B. (ed.): Drug Trafficking Research in the Americas: An Annotated Bibliography, Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1996. HARRISON, L., BACKENHEIMER,M.& INCIARDI, J.: Cannabis Use in the United States: Implications for Policy, Center for Drug BOTERO, C.: Drugs and Latin America: A Bibliography, Vance and Alcohol Studies, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, June Bibliographies, Monticello, 1990. 1995.

CROUCH,T.:Clic Papers: An Annotated Bibliography on KLEIMAN, M.: Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control, Military Involvement in Counterdrug Operations, 1980-1990, Greenwood Press, New York, 1989. Department of the Army, Department of the Air Force, Army-Air Force Center for Low Intensity Conflict, Langley Air Force Base, SCHLOSSER, E.: "Marijuana and the Law", in The Atlantic Virginia, September 1992, AD-A252 212. Monthly,Vol. 274, N° 3, September 1994. — "Reefer Madness", in The Atlantic Monthly, EBENER,P.,FELDMAN,E.& FITZGERALD, N.: Federal Vol. 274, N° 2, August 1994. Databases for Use in Drug Policy Research: A Catalogue for Data Users, RAND, Santa Monica, 1993. THOMAS, C.: Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States: Preliminary Report, The Marijuana Policy Project, McCARL,H.& YANG, C.: Economic Impact of the Underground Washington,: November 1998. Economy: A Bibliography on Money Laundering and Other Aspects of Off-the-Record Economic Transactions, Vance Bibliographies, WEISHEIT, R.: Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected Industry, Monticello, 1989. Greenwood Press, New York, 1992.

NARCO-ALERT: The War on Drugs: A Research Guide, ZIMMER,L.& MORGAN, J.: Marijuana Myths,Marijuana Facts, Washington, 1993. a Review of the Scientific Evidence, The Lindesmith Center, New York and San Francisco, 1997. TULLIS, L.: Handbook of Research on the Illicit Drug Traffic: Socioeconomic and Political Consequences, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1991. ECONOMICS OF DRUG TRAFFICKING AND USE HALLINGBY, L.: "The Two Lindesmith Center Libraries on Drug Policy Reform:The Traditional Library and the Virtual BECKER,G.,GROSSMAN,M.& MURPHY, K.: "A Theory of Library", in Behavioral and Social Science Librarian, Vol. 17, N° 1, Rational Addiction", in Journal of Political Economy,Vol. 96, 1989. 1998.

FORMER NEXT 54 Chapter 3 - Bibliography CAULKINS, J.: "Is Crack Cheaper Than (Powder) Cocaine?", in POZO, S. (ed.): Exploring the Underground Economy,W.E. Addiction,Vol. 92, N° 11, 1997. Upjohn Institute, Kalamazoo, 1996. — "Modeling the Domestic Distribution Network for Illicit Drugs", in Management Science, Vol. 43, N° 10, REUTER,P.& HAAGA, J.: The Organization of High-Level Drug 1997. Markets: An Exploratory Study, RAND, Santa Monica, 1989. — "Domestic Geographic Variation in Illicit REUTER,P.,MacCOUN, R., MURPHY, P.with ABRAHAMSE,A. Drug Prices", in Journal of Urban Economics,Vol. 37, 1995. & SIMON,B.:Money from Crime: A Study of the Economics of Drug — Developing Price Series for Cocaine, RAND, Dealing in Washington, D.C., RAND, Santa Monica, 1990. Santa Monica, 1994. SANER, H., MacCOUN,R.& REUTER, P.: "On the Ubiquity of CHILDRESS, M.: A Systems Description of the Heroin Trade, Drug Selling Among Youthful Offenders in Washington, D.C., RAND, Santa Monica, 1994. 1985-1991: Age, Period or Cohort Effect?", in Journal of — A Systems Description of the Marijuana Quantitative Criminology,Vol. 11, N° 4, December 1995. Trade, RAND, Santa Monica, 1994.

DOMBEY-MOORE,B.,RESETAR,S.& CHILDRESS, M.: A PUBLISHED ARTICLES Systems Description of the Cocaine Trade, RAND, Santa Monica, OF THE REPORT 1994. Published in English in International Social Science EVERINGHAM, S., RYDELL,P.& CAULKINS, J.: "Cocaine Journal, Blackwell Publishers/UNESCO, 169, sept. 2001 Consumption in the United States: Estimating Past Trends and Future Scenarios", in Socio-Economic Planning Science,Vol. 29, N° - Christian Geffray, Drug trafficking and the State 4, 1996. - Roberto Araujo, The drug trade, the black economy and EVERINGHAM,S.,& RYDELL,P.:Modeling the Demand for society in western Amazonia Cocaine, RAND, Santa Monica, 1994. - Alba Zaluar, Violence related to illegal drugs, easy money and justice in Brazil: 1980- 1995 - Alba Zaluar, Violence in Rio de Janeiro : styles of leisure, HAGEDORN, J.: The Business of Drug Dealing in Milwaukee, drug use and trafficking Wisconsin Policy Research Institute report, Vol. 11, N° 5, June - Michel Schiray, Drug trafficking,criminal organizations, 1998. money laundering and public policy on drug control (revised for the report) JARVIK,M.:"The Drug Dilemma:Manipulating the Demand", in Science, N° 250, 1990. Published in French and translated from Mondes en Développement, ISMEA,Tome 28, 110, 2 000 KENNEDY, M., REUTER,P.& RILEY, K.J.: A Simple Economic Model of Cocaine Production, RAND, National Defense Research - Guilhem Fabre, Decentralization, corruption and crimi- Institute, Santa Monica, 1994. nalization: China seen from a comparative perspective - Alba Zaluar, Drug trafficking and the informal market in MacCOUN,R.& REUTER, P.: "Are the Wages of Sin $30 an Rio de Janeiro (revised for the report) Hour: Economic Aspects of Street-level Drug Dealing", in Crime - Michel Schiray, Certainties and uncertainties as regards and Delinquency,Vol. 38, N° 4, 1992. illicit drug trafficking:lessons of research in France (revised for the report)

FORMER NEXT 55 Chapter 3 - Bibliography - Michel Schiray, From the discovery of the drug trafficking to the recognition of economic and financial crime: the various stages of a decade of French-language stidies on the subject (revised for the report)

Published in French and translated from the book:

- Guilhem Fabre, Les prospérités du crime: trafic de stupéfiants, blanchiments et crises financières dans l'après-guerre froide, La Tour-d'Aigues/Paris, Editions de l'Aube/UNESCO, 1999 (extract)

- Guilhem Fabre, Criminal prosperities- financial crisis and money laundering: the case of Mexico in a comparative perspective (revised for the report)

FORMER

56 Chapter 3 - Bibliography